John Paul Libanati
Spring 2026 John Jay Fellow
Hometown: Silver Spring, MD
College: Vanderbilt University
Major: Biochemical Engineering and Philosophy
Freshly returned from a fifteen-month Fulbright in Morocco where he investigated readiness for the implementation of mobile health interventions among sub-Saharan migrants and refugees, John Paul “JP” Libanati is excited to spend the next few months readapting to his home country with the John Jay Institute. Although originally from Washington, DC, JP attended Vanderbilt University where he finished summa cum laude having studied biomedical engineering and philosophy, both of which he hopes to employ in his future career. During his undergraduate days, he served as president of the Vanderbilt chapter of Tau Beta Pi honor society and was inducted as a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Eta Mu Beta societies.
His passions include low-resource engineering, language learning, inter-cultural and religious dialogue, and social dancing. During his free time, he can often be found learning new swing dance moves or nose deep in a language textbook. In addition to his native English, JP is fluent in French and Spanish, and conversationally proficient in both Modern Standard Arabic and Moroccan Dialect. His future plans include pursuing a master’s program in which he would leverage his engineering expertise to improve healthcare access for low-resource groups and for crisis response. Wherever the Lord leads, JP is certain that the firm moral foundation provided by the institute will assist him in his future exploits. After his incredible experience as a brother of Beta Upsilon Chi fraternity for Christian college men, JP is most excited to abide in the authentic community that the John Jay Fellowship offers.