Contact Information

Cirrus Academy
CEO

ajohnson@sportinthegrades.org
http://www.msphds.org/
Macon GA 31204

Biography

Dr. Ashanti Johnson is the Chief Executive Officer and Superintendent of Cirrus Academy Charter School.  She is founder of the Minorities Striving and Pursuing Higher Degrees of Success Professional Development and Mentoring Institute (MS PHD’S PDMI) and STEM Human Resource Development, Inc. (STEM HRD, Inc.). Immediately prior to joining the Cirrus Academy Charter School leadership team, Dr. Johnson was Assistant Vice Provost for Faculty Recruitment and an Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Texas at Arlington (UT Arlington). She brings to her position at Cirrus Academy Charter School more than 15 years of collective experience and expertise gained while serving as a faculty member at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), Savannah State University, UT Arlington, University of Michigan, and the University of South Florida (USF), as well as 8 years of non-profit leadership experience acquired as the former Executive Director of the Institute for Broadening Participation.

Dr. Johnson received her B.S. in Marine Science (1993) and her Ph.D. (1999) in Oceanography from Texas A&M University. Her areas of research include: 1) professional development of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) students and early career professionals, 2) STEM diversity-focused initiatives and 3) environmental aquatic radiogeochemistry.  Her radiogeochemistry research activities focus on the utilization of various biogeochemical indicators to interpret past events that have impacted the marine, estuarine and freshwater environments in the Arctic, as well as in coastal and inland regions of Texas, Georgia, Florida and Puerto Rico.  Her STEM professional development and diversity-focused activities facilitate the advancement of students representing diverse socioeconomic, cultural, gender, racial and academic backgrounds. She is the Director of the NASA and NSF-funded MS PHD’S in Earth System Science Professional Development Initiative, originally launched in 2003 at the National Academy of Science.  She served as PI and Director of the NSF-funded Infrastructure for Broadening Participation in STEM Project, UT Arlington LSAMP Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) Graduate Fellowship Program, the NASA-funded NASA One Stop Shopping Initiative Broker-Facilitator for Predominately White Institutions and Predominately Black Institutions, as well as the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Minority Ph.D. Program, the LSAMP BD Graduate Fellowship Program and Co-Director of an NSF-funded GK-12 Graduate Fellowship Program at USF and Coordinator of an NSF Alliance for Graduate Education to the Professoriate (AGEP) Program at Georgia Tech. Among her board service includes the National Academies Gulf Research Advisory Group, the NSF Advisory Committee on Environmental Research and Education, AGU Committee on Education and Human Resources and Subcommittee on Diversity, and the Savannah River Environmental Sciences Field Station Advisory Board.

She is well published in both scientific and education journals and has received numerous honors and awards, including a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring at the White House, recognition by TheGrio.com, an NBC product, as one of 100 History Makers in The Making and profiled in the Black Enterprise Magazine March 2011 Issue’s “Women In STEM” Feature Story. In 2016 Dr. Johnson was for the Entertainment Industries Council, Inc. (EIC) EICnetwork.tv Science Engineering & Technology Channel’s “Women and Girls at the Intersection of Innovation and Opportunity: A Webcast Series on Harnessing the New Career Potential of STEM + Arts”, a Nobody In Particular podcast entitled “Swimming with the Sharks”, and a Sigma Xi: Scientific Research Society Google Hangout session on engaging more African Americans in STEM.  She was also featured in one of four 2016 Black History Month celebration segments on Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends show.

[REF: http://www.cirrusacademy.org/our-leadership/ ]