John Helton

With a Kennesaw State University public and social services degree fresh in hand, a very green John Helton began his career as a DFCS child protective services investigator, ultimately learning the ins and outs of human services by serving in progressive roles managing childcare, volunteer, and community development programs before being appointed deputy director of Cobb County Department of Family and Children Services. Discovering his passion for helping create opportunities for people, John then spent 19 years as the founding president and CEO of CobbWorks, Inc. and WorkSource Cobb, the local workforce development board, until assuming leadership of CareerRise, Inc. in June 2019. John has served on boards of numerous workforce development and civic organizations at the local, state, and national levels including president of the Southeastern Employment & Training Association (SETA). John currently serves as chair of the Metro Atlanta eXchange (MAX) for Workforce Solutions as well as president of his neighborhood association in the historic Summerhill neighborhood of Atlanta. John is an avid traveler, but when home, he enjoys cooking a good meal for family and friends and caretaking his often neurotic and frequently aggressive rescue poodle, Duncan.

“In another life, I’m pretty sure I was a creative writer of anything other than policy memos.”