2018 Louisvillian of the Year

AAF-Louisville is pleased to recognize Mary Gwen Wheeler and David Jones, Jr. as the 2018 Louisvillian of the Year recipients! Mary Gwen and David were selected for the honor of Louisvillian of the Year by a panel of past honorees.

Mary Gwen Wheeler and David Jones, Jr. are passionate – about education, health, community and family. They bonded around education as the key to unlocking human potential when teaching in China in the early 1980s, and this belief has guided their professional, civic and philanthropic work in Louisville.

Mary Gwen Wheeler is an education policy strategist and currently serves as Executive Director of 55,000 Degrees, a multi-sector public-private partnership dedicated to increasing educational attainment in the Louisville region. She previously served in various cabinet roles in Louisville’s Metro Government, focused on enhancing education, health and youth services through initiatives including the Mayor’s Education Roundtable, YouthPrint, Every1Reads and the Mayor’s Healthy Hometown Movement. Before this she spent ten years at the National Center for Family Literacy, leading strategic planning and national projects focused on breaking the cycle of undereducation and poverty through intensive education of multiple generations.

Mary Gwen is the immediate past chair of the Kentucky Board of Education, having served on the board from 2010-2018. She also serves of UofL’s Board of Overseers, the NCFL board, and the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. She holds a B.A. in American Studies and a Master of Public and Private Management from Yale University.

David Jones, Jr. is one of the leading venture capitalists in mid-America and a well-respected voice in healthcare business and innovation. Trained in law, finance and teaching, David returned to Louisville after working in the U.S. Department of State during the first George Bush administration and teaching national security law at Georgetown University. He founded Chrysalis Ventures in 1993 and currently focuses on applying digital tools to improve human well-being and efficacy. Also in 1993 David joined the Board of Humana Inc., serving as vice chair from 1996-2005 and chair from 2005-2010. In addition to personal philanthropy in partnership with Mary Gwen, he is a director of the Humana Foundation and Treasurer of the C.E. & S. Foundation. David served one term as an elected member of the Jefferson County Board of Education, including two years as board chair (2015-2016).

David loves to teach. He has taught entrepreneurship at the University of Louisville School of Business, negotiation at the Venture Capital Institute and, most recently, “Innovation in Big Organizations” at Bellarmine’s Rubel School of Business.

David has a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Click here to view past Louisvillian of the Year recipients.

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DAVID AND BETTY JONES