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LANLF Welcomes John McDermon

LANL Foundation Welcomes New Program Manager to Oversee Scholarships

ESPAÑOLA, NM — The LANL Foundation welcomes John McDermon as the new scholarship program manager.

McDermon joins the Foundation staff after nine years as a member of the Los Alamos Employees’ Scholarship Fund advisory committee, where he also served in leadership roles as committee chair and chair of the student ranking sub-committee.

The volunteer scholarship committee is instrumental in guiding the program’s growth, efficiency and equity in selection, service and support of students from seven Northern New Mexico counties pursuing higher learning. McDermon will oversee the daily program operations, lead fundraising activities and manage the committee as well as the Los Alamos Employees’ Scholarship Fund.

“John is passionate about education and scholarships. He will continue to lead the program, build upon its strengths and explore new ways to best serve our students,” said Tony Fox, who led the program for 16 years before moving into the role of vice president of scholarship and advancement at the Foundation.

After 24-year career in information technology and management, McDermon recently retired from Los Alamos National Laboratory. Prior to his work at Los Alamos, he served on active duty in the United States Air Force as a Civil Engineering Officer in positions as an Installation Architect and Instructor in Architecture at the Air Force Institute of Technology. He retired from the Air Force Reserves as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2010 with 28 years of combined active and reserve service.

McDermon graduated with a bachelor of architecture degree from the Arizona State University in 1982 and was a Registered Architect in the State of Hawaii for 20 years. John received his master of arts degree in urban planning from University of California Los Angeles in 1990 and his master of science degree in computer science from the University of New Mexico in 1999.

“My deep support of education comes not only from my own experience but from my parents, who were both life-long teachers, and my wife Regina, a retired elementary special education teacher,” said McDermon. “Working with the scholarship is by far the most rewarding experience in my career at LANL. My daughter, Natalie, received a LAESF scholarship, and I’m now working to pay forward that opportunity through my service to the program as a donor, committee member and now program manager.”

Since 1998, more than 1,100 students have received $5.5 million in scholarships from donations made by the Los Alamos National Laboratory workforce, LANS LLC, and community supporters.

For more information about scholarships, contact John McDermon at 505-753-8890 ext. 115 or john@lanlfoundation.org.

Read the article in:
Santa Fe New Mexican
Los Alamos Daily Post
Valley Daily Post