Anton Gunn (’94 history, ’01 MSW) never intended to run for office — and he certainly never dreamed he’d one day advise a president. In fact, his only goal was to teach U.S. history to high school juniors and coach girls basketball on the side.
Though he never became a teacher, Gunn did build a career out of motivational speaking and public service, all thanks to one person who changed his life forever: his former boss, Lenora Bush Reese.
Reese took the fresh-out-of-college Gunn under her wing and hired him at her nonprofit despite his lack of internship experience or prerequisites on his resume. Her mentorship was unlike anything Gunn had ever experienced. Not only did she take the time to get to know him and engage with his interests, but she saw his potential and nurtured his professional development.
“She armed me with a new way to think about problems,” Gunn says. “That way of thinking still informs my way of thinking to this day.”
When the time came for him to leave the nest, Reese encouraged him and had full confidence in his potential for success. Her leadership qualities made such an impact on Gunn that he became determined to have the same impact on others.
“I wanted to be a leader like Lenora, so I needed to learn everything she knew, and learn it the way she learned it,” he says. “Whatever Lenora was doing, I wanted to do.”
That desire led him, like his mentor, to pursue a Master of Social Work at the University of South Carolina.
Gunn’s view of social work, however, was different from most. He had no passion for counseling; rather, he wanted to focus on the source of problems for which people felt the need for such support. The root cause, he found, was in systemic and structural issues of society at large.
His goal of dismantling these challenges led him to a life of public service. Elected to serve in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 2009 to 2011, he served on a committee overseeing, among other things, social services. He climbed the ranks to become a senior advisor to former president Barack Obama, holding positions in both the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Intergovernmental and External Affairs.
Contemplating the impact Reese had on his life, Gunn felt compelled to provide the same opportunities for others and established the Anton J. Gunn Endowed Fellowship Fund at the USC College of Social Work, a fund for students pursuing their master’s degree in social work.
“I wanted to invest my time, talent and treasure to support people who want to change and improve systems,” he says.
To Gunn, no man is an island. He believes what he does today will have an impact on others. With everything he’s been given, he wants to ensure that impact is positive.
“Because of my donation, the person who receives that fellowship could end up being the person who prevents the next world war, who ends poverty or homelessness forever or who makes America a much better nation, and they could only do that because my contribution helped them on the next step of their journey,” Gunn says. “That’s more significant than anything I might do.”