John Littel ’82 “Called” to Public Service

John Littel '82 has spent his career working for the public good: first as a part of President George H. W. Bush’s White House, later in health care, and today working as part of Virginia’s state government, where he now serves as the Chief of Staff to Governor Glenn Youngkin. He believes that the Prep and his Jesuit education instilled a desire for service in him. 

“When I was a student at the Prep, they really talked about becoming Men For Others,” says Littel. “While some might say that sounds trite, it really was baked into our education. The Jesuits were great role models and we learned that every person can have a significant impact on the lives of other people. We are called to that.”

Littel seemed destined to attend the Prep. His mother’s family lived on Poplar Street near the Prep, and, while a teenager, his mother worked for then-principal Rev. Joseph Ayd, S.J., a good friend of the family who baptized John. Also, legendary Classics teacher Charlie Kling '61, a member of the Prep’s Hall of Excellence, is his uncle. 

“I was at the Prep so often when I was a kid,” says Littel, who attended summer programs at the Prep before he entered high school. “I was really interested in going to the Prep.”

He attended the Prep from the Olney section of Philadelphia and “had a great experience. The Prep gave me a great opportunity to learn how to be a bigger, better person than I even knew. I loved taking the train, taking the subway, and going downtown. I loved having friends from all over the area. It was a great, really positive experience.”

While he was part of the Crew program, Littel really found a home with the retreat program run by Campus Ministers Rev. Joe Simmons, S.J., and Sr. Kathleen Woody, G.N.S.H. This continued after he graduated from the Prep and went to the University of Scranton, where he was reunited with Fr. Simmons, who transferred there to join the Mission and Ministry team.

After graduating from Scranton, Littel decided to attend law school and again was influenced by a Jesuit, as Scranton’s Campus Minister Rev. Donald Pantle, S.J., joined him on a trip to D.C. and talked him into attending Catholic University. “I wanted to be in Washington, because I loved politics, and had since I was six years old.” Another Jesuit connection, former Prep principal Rev. Tom Roach, S.J., was also at Georgetown Prep and invited him to become a prefect at the school to give him a place to live. 

“The Jesuits have been all around me,” he says, “involved in so many areas of my life.”

After law school, Littel expected to move to New York and put his degree to work in securities law. But it was 1988, and George H. W. Bush had just been elected president. “I’m in D.C. and President Bush names Bill Bennet to be the first drug czar,” Littel remembers. “I heard them speak and decided I wanted to be a part of that instead of working in New York.” Although he was first rejected for a position, he began work as a White House intern before going full-time in a few months. He stayed until the end of the Bush administration in 1993. In addition to the incredible working experience in Washington, D.C., he also met his wife Marianne there. The two married and now have three grown children.

Leaving the White House, Littel was happy to work as Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Resources for Virginia before going into private industry, still handling the providing of mental health services. “I really like working with health programs because you can see the impact that it makes on people’s lives, especially those who are most vulnerable in our society.” At the same time, he served on the Board of The College of William and Mary for 12 years, including four as the Rector.

In 2021, with a job he loved as President of Magellan, which helped provide mental health services in many states, including Pennsylvania and Virginia, he got a call to meet with Virginia’s Governor-Elect Youngkin. 

“I was not interested in joining the state government because I had a job that was so meaningful,” Littel says. “Especially post-pandemic, there was a critical need for mental health and I felt like I was making a difference.” Still, Youngkin had been very vocal during his campaign about changing the mental health system so it was more effective for those who needed it. “That’s not something that many politicians talk about, so I wanted to meet him.”

After a two-plus-hour conversation, Littel accepted the position of Secretary of Health and Human Resources, commuting every week from his home in Virginia Beach. “It was great to come into a new administration,” he recalls. “We led a very methodical, inclusive, and comprehensive way of approaching mental health reform.”

According to Littel, some early successes were establishing mobile crisis units, so that everyone had access to care from mental health professionals within an hour of their home, so people could be cared for quickly by a mental health professional instead of law enforcement; building more crisis receiving centers where people could go to be treated; and changing bullying laws so that children were protected and parents had the tools that they needed. “We looked at everything: youth mental health, adult mental health, services for the homeless,” he says. 

One area of great need was supporting those addicted to drugs. “Like many states, Virginia had a terrible overdose crisis,” he says. More people died from overdoses than from gun or motor vehicle accidents. About five Virginians died from Fentanyl overdoses every day. My earlier training from the White House drug office paid off as we found ways to intervene and intercept drug trafficking to break the supply chain. We provided naloxone training for anyone we could and made it readily available.”

Littel is happy to say that Virginia saw the highest decline of overdose deaths in the country, but says “you have to stay vigilant because drug traffickers continue to change their methods.”

Another surprise came Littel’s way in May 2024 as Governor Youngkin asked him to be Chief of Staff. Littel had to pivot again. “It was a total surprise, one I wasn’t quite thinking about,” he says. “However, when you serve in a political process, when asked, you generally say yes. It has been a real educational experience. Every day is a different issue to manage.”

It is moments like this when Littel relies upon his Jesuit education, especially at the Prep. “My wife says that I learned more in high school than she learned in college,” he says with a laugh.

He adds that his Prep education readied him for a life in service. “At the Prep, there was an expectation of excellence, and we were surrounded by it,” he says. “The people in my classes with me were incredibly smart. We were taught to write well, learn to think logically, and to communicate in a persuasive way. I felt very prepared when I got to college and that put me on the right course for life.”

Littel encourages Prep students to consider a life of public service. “As I get older, I have learned that the things that you think you are pursuing, such as money or a title, are less important than the impact you are making in people’s lives,” he says. “That was instilled in me from all of my experiences at the Prep.”

He attributes his many turns and valleys to being open to “understanding God’s purpose in your life. It is okay to be open to things you didn’t plan for; things that don’t seem like the normal course. Saying yes to a job or something that you didn’t plan for might be exactly what you are supposed to do.”