Griffin native John Stovall is Featured Public Servant at Georgia Southwestern

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Griffin native Dr. John S. Stovall, won the 2012 Georgia Southwestern State University Featured Public Servant Award (image background – Sumter Historic Trust’s Lee Council House).

Every business student knows that product, place, and promotion are three of the "Four Ps" in marketing. If service is the product and the Americus community is the place, no one promotes it better than John Stovall, Ph.D. An associate professor of marketing at Georgia Southwestern State University and a native of Griffin, Stovall is the 2012 recipient of the University's Featured Public Servant Award.

Initiated in 2008 by GSW President Kendall A. Blanchard, Ph.D., this award is presented to an employee at Georgia Southwestern who makes valuable contributions to the community where he or she lives and works. It is also a way to remind the larger Americus community that Georgia Southwestern faculty and staff play an important role in the social and cultural life of that community.

"I really have to thank my parents, Frank and Betty Stovall, for giving me the opportunities to be able to become whatever I wanted," said Stovall. "It's really neat to be honored with an award just for doing things I like to do."

In those seven years, Stovall's community involvement has been extensive, in particular with the Sumter Historic Trust. The Historic Trust is a member-driven organization that helps maintain Americus and Sumter County's rich historic tradition. While serving as a general board member, Stovall also is the Trust's volunteer manager for Lee Council House rentals and the House pool, and he serves on the Trust's board for the Revolving Fund. In the past year alone, he has helped raise over $25,000 through various fundraising events.

"We are extremely lucky to have such a dedicated and loyal person as a member of The Sumter Historic Trust," said Mark Minick, president of the Sumter Historic Trust. "John is the type of person you can count on and gives his all in everything he does."

Stovall also sits on the Archway Partnership's Bridging Campus to Community Committee aimed at fostering a "College Town" culture. The Archway Partnership is a University of Georgia community engagement platform created to address self-identified community needs.

His other community involvement includes membership in the Americus-Sumter Chamber of Commerce and the local Downtown Development Authority where he serves on the Finance and Building Committees.

In addition to his work off campus, Stovall is just as active on campus serving as faculty advisor to several student organizations and serving on numerous committees. Most notably, is his work with Georgia Southwestern's SIFE Team (Students In Free Enterprise), for which he is a SIFE Sam Walton Fellow. During his two years tenure as faculty advisor, the GSW SIFE Team has placed either first or second at the annual regional competition in Atlanta.

At the 2012 regional competition earlier this month, GSW's SIFE Team was given a 4.0 Award, recognizing the top five percent of SIFE teams internationally.

At the Spring 2011 Commencement, Stovall was awarded the Excellence and Commitment to Teaching Award, voted on by the 2010 graduating class and funded by the GSW Alumni Association. Given by senior student-athletes, he has been the recipient of the MVP Faculty Award the last four years.

Stovall joined the GSW faculty in 2005. Prior to that, he served on the marketing faculty and as a computer consultant at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Before his career move to higher education, Stovall worked in the textile industry after completing service in the U.S. Army.

Having grown up in Griffin, Stovall earned his bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. in marketing from UIC. He resides in Americus.

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