John Husted ’89: Team approach

A two-time UD graduate, Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted ’89 discusses with UD Magazine Editor Michelle Tedford the UD foundations of his political success.

Q: Did you initially aspire to public service?

A: My goal was to play college football and win a national championship — and I got the opportunity to play college football and got the opportunity to win a national championship. I learned from that experience what the fundamentals of success look like. UD taught me a lot of character skills that were the foundations for everything that I did successful in life after that.

Q: How else did UD influence you?

A: UD was a great environment to help me at that point in my life grow up, and to do it in a supportive environment. There were so many people who helped me, more than I realized at the time. Brother Ray [Fitz], who was the president, is a wonderful champion of the idea of servant-leadership.

Q: Why go into politics?

A: There’s a quote from Gandhi, that if you want to find yourself, lose yourself in service to others. Those foundational values that UD provided at that time have come full circle in my life and have helped me really be a more selfless person in service to others.

Q: What do you want to accomplish?

A: Working with Gov. Mike DeWine, we want to help everybody in life be a little bit better tomorrow than they are today. I used to have 11 guys who were on my team; now I have 11.6 million — they’re all Ohioans. And so, what can we do every day to build systems and to create opportunities that help those individuals be a little better tomorrow than they were today and achieve their God-given potential?