SUNY Chancellor Johnson visits Hudson Valley

Zoe Deno
News Editor

SUNY Chancellor Kristina Johnson answered questions directly from students during her visit to Hudson Valley.

Chancellor Johnson has been touring SUNY campuses since she began her first term as chancellor last September. She visited Hudson Valley on March 9 to take a short tour through the campus. She then spoke at a seminar where faculty and students could ask her questions or express their concerns. The seminar was closed to press.

“We want to create an environment where students can feel safe to ask questions and express their concerns,” said SUNY Press Secretary Holly Liapis.

Chancellor Johnson answered several questions from students on the record before the seminar began.

Will Springs, an individual studies major, wanted to know what part of [Johnson’s] life helped to shape her most.

Born in 1967, Johnson grew up in a large family in Denver, Colorado. Most of her six siblings were older than her.

“[My siblings] would come home from school and teach me what they knew,” Johnson said. “That really gave me a headstart on school [and] a love of learning.”

The passion for education Johnson’s siblings helped foster was evident from a young age. When Johnson was a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School, she won both the Denver City and Colorado State science fair competitions. She then won the Air Force at the International Science Fair for her project, “Holographic Study of the Sporangiophore Phycomyces.”

Johnson attended Stanford University and received her B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering, later getting her postdoctoral at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

Nursing major Kylie Cotugno wanted to know what made [Johnson] want to become Chancellor of SUNY.

After johnson graduated from her postdoctoral fellowship, she was appointed assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1985. Later, in 1999, Johnson was appointed Dean of the School of Engineering at Duke University. In 2007, Johnson became the Senior Vice President and Provost of Johns Hopkins University.

In 2009, Johnson took a short break from working in colleges when she was appointed by President Obama to be the Under Secretary of Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy.

Johnson’s hiatus was short-lived.