Pam Johnson shares her experience growing up in Tulsa, Okla., and how DEI can prevent discriminatory acts of the past from arising today.
Pam Johnson
Pam Johnson is an author, consultant and the current chair of MFP’s Board of Directors. Before venturing out on her own as a publicist, political strategist, and media-and issues-management consultant, Pam was the executive director of the Mississippi Commission on the Status of Women and the Mississippi Association for Justice . She was assistant secretary of state for policy and publications and served as the office of the state auditor’s first communications coordinator. Pam participated in the first Mississippi Book Festival as the author of “Justice for Ella” (iUniverse, 2014), a true story of Mississippi’s civil-rights era featuring two brave women who beat the harsh system of discrimination and segregation in 1960s-era Noxubee County. The late columnist Bill Minor likened the work to Mississippi’s true version of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Pam is a past president of the Board of Directors of the Center for Violence Prevention, a domestic-violence shelter in Pearl, Miss., that serves survivors of interpersonal violence and human trafficking. She was on the team that helped establish the SANE program, which provides sexual-assault victims compassionate and effective care, in Mississippi, resulting in a stronger system for successful prosecution of attackers. Pam served on the Board of Trustees of Leadership Greater Jackson and is a proud union member, helping to promote good-paying, secure jobs for Mississippi workers. She has been a public-school teacher, a news editor of two weekly newspapers, a magazine publisher, a florist, a lobbyist, an advocate, and was twice elected alderwoman in her hometown of Mount Olive. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in English secondary education from the University of Southern Mississippi and is a long-time associate member of the Mississippi Press Association.
