“Every poster that we have out there is a call for public action. We want the public to stop, to look, to read the poster. If you see something, if you know something to report it.“
John Bischoff
Description
You might have seen “Missing Person” billboards and posters, but there’s a lot more to using publicity in order to seek people who have disappeared.
John Bischoff is Vice-President for the Missing Children Division of the National Center For Missing Exploited Children (NCMEC). He talks with Karen and Caroline about the relationships they’ve established to help make publicity campaigns successful.
They discuss the importance of media campaigns to gather information from a community and to empower worried families and loved ones in the search. In addition to the power of posters, John explains how information databases and analytics services can provide non-profit support in spreading a message, in addition to social media platforms and community alerts.
He also talks about the particular challenges of running campaigns across a nation as big as the United States, and why this can be so powerful in safely finding missing people.
And when someone is found? The care this media team offers stretches to respecting and protecting the privacy of an individual so they can continue with their lives and move on.
Guest

John E. Bischoff III
Dr. John E. Bischoff III is currently the Acting Vice President of the Missing Children Division for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). Within this role, he is responsible for the oversight of all missing children’s cases, both in the United States and those children taken abroad. He is responsible for all case management and Hotline operations (800-THE-LOST®), with locations across four (4) regionally based offices. Before joining NCMEC in September 2010, he served with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, focusing on reunification and mass evacuation disaster services, and AOL directly managing child protection, public safety, and criminal investigation efforts.
Dr. Bischoff received a Doctorate of Engineering from the George Washington University. He also received a Master of Business Administration, a graduate certificate in management information systems, and Bachelor of Arts with a major in business management from Shenandoah University.