Johnson’s commitment to bridging the digital divide shows both with Charter and with her work in the community. She leads a team that prioritizes deployment to unserved homes and small businesses while also advocating for affordability and adoption programs. Johnson is also a board member of the Florida Virtual School and is on the Board of Trustees for the Pace Center for Girls while also having served as a former chair of the Florida State Board of Education.
Who would play you in a movie about your life? I would say Yetide Badaki. I think she is an amazing actress who may be undervalued in Hollywood right now. I love her energy—when she walks into a room, she lights it up. She’s beautiful and Nigerian and she always plays someone who is strong. She has been selected for several roles about strong women—in fact I believe that she’s being considered to play Storm in the upcoming Marvel movies.
Advice I would five to a recent graduate: I’d say to value the networks that you’ve build through the collegiate experience—invest in it and continue to grow it as you move into professional career. Also, don’t assume that your career path is up a ladder. Consider it to be more of a “jungle gym” where you will have varied experiences that will sometimes take you up and sometimes will move you laterally. Every experience you take should help you build and grow your abilities in a way that will prepare you for new opportunities. Make sure that whatever you choose to do next, even if it’s not within your degree alignment, is an opportunity that you can enjoy what you did every day.
What non-profit are you proud to champion and why? The PACE Center for Girls. It’s an organization focused on helping to empower young women who are at-risk. The Center supplements, and in some places, primarily funds education paths in a way that helps to create value principles. When these principles are correctly executed it can change foundationally how these adolescents see themselves in the world and allows them to look forward to more positive outcomes in their futures. In most cases, PACE is able to turn these girls’ lives around so that they are able to maintain a good quality of life and be happy. Many former students in the program succeed in a way that allows them to then give back to the Center and work with girls who have dealt with the same issues that they have. I love working with PACE because when you change the life of a woman you change a life of a community.