JohnÌýHeffernan
- Foundation for Systemic Change | President
- 2026 SPEAKER
- 2025 SPEAKER
- 2024 SPEAKER
- 2023 SPEAKER
- 2022 SPEAKER
- INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

John (he/him) is the President of the Foundation for Systemic Change. He has over thirty years of experience in development, human rights, rule of law, democracy and governance, humanitarian relief, and post-conflict reconstruction projects in the United States, Africa, South America, Asia, and Europe.
He is the executive producer of the documentary film American Agitators. Previously, he served as executive director of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights’; director of the Genocide Prevention Initiative at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum where he established the Genocide Prevention Task Force; senior Investigator with Physicians for Human Rights; chief of party for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Guyana, South America; founder and executive director of the Coalition for International Justice; and country representative for the former Yugoslavia and Sudan for the International Rescue Committee. He was trained as a community organizer by Fred Ross. He serves as the board chair for Disability Rights International, Educators' Institute for Human Rights and is on the board of Social Documentary Network.