Meet Dr. Christopher E. Johnson
Title: Senior Grants Specialist
Years at NEA: 11 years
Over the life of the NEA Great Public Schools (GPS) Grant Fund, nearly $64 million has been sent to 96 affiliates to fuel union-led, student-centered school transformation—and every one of those dollars are now administered by Dr. Christopher E. Johnson. He is the critical program’s sole administrator.
The work is consuming: At the start of the grant cycle, which every NEA member contributes $3 to, Dr. Johnson receives applications and disaggregates information for the oversight committee. Then, over the life of the grant, he provides all technical assistance to the recipients, traveling to grant sites to meet with educators, review budgets, monitor progress, and support them in reaching their goals and sharing their success with other NEA leaders.
As a former teacher, instructional coach, principal and governance leader, the work comes naturally to him. “What I tell them is, ‘I’m not your boss. I’m your thought partner. I’m here to listen to what you want to do and point you in the right direction,’” he says.
Recently, Dr. Johnson returned from Illinois, where NEA members are working to stop the school-to-prison pipeline through a $500,000 GPS grant that assists early-career educators in implementing abolitionist teaching in their classrooms. “It is truly, truly transformational,” he says.
One of Christopher’s favorite GPS grant projects? In New Mexico, a three-year $630,000 GPS grant helped establish community schools in Las Cruces, N.M., a project that has been so successful it spawned a NEA initiative dedicated to spreading the community-schools model nationwide. “That’s how powerful these grants are. They literally spark innovation,” he says.
Fun Facts about Dr. Johnson
In April 2000, Dr. Johnson was on the cover of NEA Today! At the time, he was a teacher, a bus driver, a graduate student, and serving on the Wake ACT, a North Carolina Association of Educator’s affiliate, board of directors. He is the past president of The Student SCEA. The NEA Today writer met him at his Raleigh, N.C., home at 5:30 a.m., rode with him along his school bus route, audited his classroom, and then went to his master’s degree classes in the afternoon.
Recently, Dr. Johnson was named as the national chairman of K12 education for the 100 Black Men of America. It’s his second national chair, and in this role, he will be working to eradicate the school-to-prison pipeline.
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