John Willingham at a recent LITS event.

Recently, John Willingham, an educational analyst in Academic Technology Services, was featured in a bio published in the Emory Report called, ‘John Willingham: Building connections through computers and concerts.’ In the article, John discusses his life, his fundraising for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and his thoughts on the links between creative expression and IT.

“You’ll find that at least half the people who work in IT at Emory are artists, actors or musicians of some type,” said John. “This is just my theory, but I think there’s a lot of overlap in the style of thinking and creativity required.”

An accomplished musician in classical, acoustic, and jazz guitar, John grew up following in the footsteps of his father, who was also a musician, and began taking serious guitar lessons in grade school. John also plays string and electric bass and keyboards.

“I really appreciated the Emory Report reaching out to me,” said John.

John raises money for CHOA and the National Association for Glycogen Storage Disease children’s fund, which has provided support over the years for his daughter Olivia, who was diagnosed as a child with GSD. “Today, she’s doing extremely well,” said John, “largely due to the diligence of our family and Emory Professor Rani Sigh, who has done some spectacular work on Glycogen Storage Disease.”

You can learn more about John at his website at http://johnwillingham.com. You can also read the Emory Report article in its entirety at this link on the Emory Report website.