John Ohab, PhD

John Ohab is the Senior Director & Chief Strategist for Brand, Collaboration, and Information Technology at the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation.

John joined the Hertz Foundation after 12 years leading communications strategy and policy in the Federal government. He was the Chief of Communications at the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, where he led the institute’s corporate communications, public liaison, and media relations activities. Prior to that, he was Head of Communications and Social Media at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, the in-house research and development nexus for the Navy and Marine Corps.

John was twice a Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, serving at the National Institute of Mental Health and the U.S. Department of Defense.

John received his bachelor’s in biopsychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his PhD in neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles. His doctoral work in Dr. S. Thomas Carmichael’s laboratory examined the role of neural stem cells in brain repair and functional recovery after stroke.

John was born and raised in Tempe, Arizona, experienced a moderately successful run in high school varsity tennis, and is waiting patiently for an Arizona Cardinals Super Bowl victory.