John Garofolo

John Garofolo was born in Chicago and raised in California where he embarked on a career in the entertainment industry, starting in the mailroom. He eventually became a Vice President at Twentieth Century Fox and later was a partner in an entertainment industry-focused Advertising Agency.

He joined the Coast Guard Reserve in 1989 and served on active duty for two years assigned to the Department of Defense where worked on the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of World War II.

He remained in the Coast Guard Reserve for 30 years and is a veteran of the Iraq war. He served for nearly 14 years on active duty and recently retired at the rank of Captain as the Coast Guard's Chief of the Office of Work-Life. He taught at the Coast Guard Academy and Yale.

His book Dickey Chapelle Under Fire; Photographs by the First American Female War Correspondent Killed in Action was awarded the Independent Book Publishing Association's prestigious Benjamin Franklin Silver Award.

John earned a PhD from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts and was selected for the highly competitive year-long 2019-20 Writers Guild Foundation Veterans Writing Program. He currently lives with his wife and daughter in Southern California.