Lisa Johnson, MPA, has been Associate Director of Programs with FHI 360’s National Institute for Work and Learning (NIWL) since September 2007. Ms. Johnson has more than 20 years of experience developing and implementing workforce development programs and strategies and has held several leadership positions in which she created and managed education, skills training, and employment preparation programs for a multitude of youth and adult populations. She has extensive experience with public/private partnerships and currently directs the Johnson & Johnson funded Bridge to Employment (BTE) program focused on the pipeline to the healthcare workforce. She has extensive experience providing technical assistance in regards to mentoring, college and career readiness, soft skills, partnership development, strategic planning, and program design. She has created guides, soft skills and STEM activities, and facilitated employee youth development training sessions globally.
In addition to leading the BTE program, Ms. Johnson leads Johnson & Johnson's Women in STEM2D initiative, created to advance the STEM2D education of young women and girls globally through community-based partnerships to reach over one million girls ages 5 – 18 by 2020. She manages the project and its partners, ensures evaluation and best practices are incorporated into all aspects of the program design and develops employee volunteer training sessions and lessons to use with students in the K-12 system. She also serves as a liaison to two Regional Education Associations in North Dakota for Succeed 2020, a statewide education project funded by the Hess Corporation aimed at helping North Dakota students become better prepared for college and careers. She provides support to incorporate college and career readiness into the education systems and provides strategic planning and capacity building for the local entities.
She has also co-directed several qualitative studies in which she conducted numerous site visits, focus groups, and interviews for these evaluations. She was co-author in 2009 of “Turnaround Strategies for Youth At-Risk: Lessons from the Evaluation of the Urban Youth Empowerment Program” A report to the National Urban League. This work consisted of site visits, focus groups, and numerous interactions with multi-sites in a national youth development initiative. Ms. Johnson has served as Vice Chair of the National Youth Employment Coalition since 2013 and is an Executive Committee Member with the Communities Collaborating to Reconnect Youth Network. Ms. Johnson’s experience and expertise position her to support the STESSA project. She will build on this experience to provide project support and ensure timely and high quality implementation of activities related to university and career readiness.