John Paul Godges is a research communications analyst at the RAND Corporation, one of the world's most prestigious research institutions. In the 1990s, he was editor of New City/Pueblo Nuevo, a multilingual magazine for families and communities working to prevent substance abuse in the Latino, Armenian, and Russian immigrant neighborhoods of Los Angeles. In his volunteer time, he serves on the editorial board of The Way of St. Francis, the magazine of the Franciscan Friars of California.

Godges earned an undergraduate degree in American studies from Georgetown University; a master's degree in journalism from the University of California at Berkeley, where he specialized in religion and society by taking divinity courses at the nearby Graduate Theological Union; and a master's degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.