Greg Jao

InterVarsity Senior Assistant to the President and Director of External Relations

Greg Jao serves InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA as the Senior Assistant to the President and as Director of External Relations. In this role, he leads InterVarsity’s efforts to partner with other ministries, churches, and networks; shapes InterVarsity’s leadership communications; and guides InterVarsity’s response to situations where the ministry’s presence is challenged by campus administrators.

Greg is the author of Your Mind’s Mission (an Urbana Onward book), The Kingdom of God (a LifeGuide Bible Study), and a contributing author to Following Jesus without Dishonoring Your Parents (a discipleship book for Asian Americans) (all IVP), Educating about Religious Diversity and Interfaith Engagement: A Handbook for Student Affairs (Stylus), Telling the Truth (a book on postmodern evangelism published by Zondervan), and Voices of Conflict & Voices of Hope (a two-volume study of American teenagers) (Adama Books). A second-generation Chinese American, he helped develop The Daniel Project, a leadership acceleration program for Asian American InterVarsity staff. He has served on the curricula teams for subsequent Daniel Projects serving African Americans, Latinos, and Fraternity/Sorority ministry staff. He frequently speaks on campus, in churches, and at conferences. Among InterVarsity alumni, Greg is best known as the emcee for the Urbana Student Mission Conferences in 03, 06, 09, and 12.

Prior to his ministry with InterVarsity, Greg worked as an employee benefits attorney in Chicago.

Academic Background: Greg is a graduate of The University of Chicago (B.A. English, 1990) and The Northwestern University School of Law (J.D., 1994).

Family: Greg is married to Jennifer (Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Disease) at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine and an attending physician at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital), and they have two daughters: Madeleine and Kirsten.

If you want more random information: He’s also a character in the Star Trek novel, The Kobayashi Maru.