John Wiemann has helped lead the charge in California to promote the value of higher education amidst shrinking state funding.He joined the UCSB faculity in 1977. From 1995 to 2009, John served as vice chancellor for institutional advancement at the University of California-Santa Barbara. He retired from the university in August of 2009. In 1999, John was one of the founders of a project to supply low-income elementary school students and their families in southern Santa Barbara County with refurbished computers. John credits his Kellogg Fellowship experience with helping to broaden his thinking and giving him strategies for confronting problems that, before, had seemed abstract. In December 2004, John became a member of the Kellogg Fellows Leadership Alliance Board of Directors. He notes, "The Alliance Facilitates staying connected with other Fellows. It makes the reconnection for all of us possible."