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Marlene Johnson is executive director and
chief executive officer of NAFSA: Association of International Educators,
the world’s largest membership organization of professionals in the field of
international educational exchange. NAFSA's 8,500 members work in 2,500
institutions, which educate approximately 90 percent of the half-million
foreign students and scholars in the U.S. and are responsible for arranging
international study experiences for more than 125,000 U.S. students each
year.
Johnson's commitment to international
education issues has led to her current position as chair of the Alliance
for International Educational and Cultural Exchange. She is also a member of
the American Council on Education's Commission on International Education,
and for the past two years has participated in the Universities Project of
the Salzburg Seminar. The Project is a forum that brings senior
representatives of higher education together to focus on higher education
reform in Central and Eastern Europe. As an outgrowth of the Salzburg
seminar, Johnson served on a team advising the leadership of the University
of Tartarstan.
Her prior international experience, in
addition to world trade development for the state of Minnesota, includes an
international business fellowship at the London School of Economics in 1987;
creation of an entreprenuership program for Czech women at the College of
St. Catherine in 1993; and participation in the creation of the Akita, Japan
campus of the Minnesota State University system.
Entrepreneur and administrator, Johnson has
three decades of leadership experience in government, business, and
nonprofit management. As lieutenant governor of Minnesota from 1983 to
1991, she was an outspoken advocate of international educational exchange at
the secondary and post secondary levels. In 1994, the Clinton
Administration recruited Johnson as associate administrator at the General
Services Administration.
Most recently, Johnson was vice president
for people and strategy at a large furniture producer. In her corporate
work, as elsewhere, Johnson built on her 12-year experience as president of
a marketing and communications company in St. Paul, a business she founded
and operated successfully before entering state politics.
Marlene Johnson is an experienced and
successful grassroots organizer. She is a former Board member of the World
Press Institute and the National Association of Women Business Owners.
Currently, she serves on the Board of Trustees of AFS Intercultural Programs
and on the Board of Directors of the Girl Scouts Council of the Nation’s
Capital.
U.S. colleges and universities count on
NAFSA for help in their efforts to internationalize the campus and promote
international educational mobility at the undergraduate, graduate and
faculty levels. Because domestic and foreign employers look to these
universities for highly trained graduates to do business internationally,
NAFSA’s members play a key role in the growth and vitality of the world’s
best university system, which Johnson describes as “a real U.S. national
treasure.”
To speak with Marlene Johnson, or to arrange an
interview, please contact Jill Erbland at 202.737.3699, ext. 208. |
