Dr. Tarece Johnson

by JWA Staff
Our work to expand the Encyclopedia is ongoing. We are providing this brief biography for Dr. Tarece Johnson until we are able to commission a full entry.

Dr. Tarece Johnson

Tarece Johnson, EdD, is a womanist, entrepreneur, diversity and inclusion expert, poet, artist, author, activist, and advocate. A mother of two, she converted to Reform Judaism in 2016 and is a member of Temple Sinai in Atlanta. She attended La Universidad del Sagrado Corazon in Santurce, Puerto Rico, and earned her MPA from Columbia University in New York, her MBA from Emory University, and her EdD from Capella University. As a public figure, Johnson aims to make a difference in her community, nation, and the world through her acts of service, kindness, talents, and love. As a leader in the Atlanta local NAACP, Alliance for Black Lives, and March On Georgia, she has worked tirelessly on issues impacting disenfranchised and marginalized people and communities. She fights passionately against discrimination, antisemitism, systemic racism, inequities, oppressions, injustice, ignorance, and hate. Her multicultural experiences led her to create Global Purpose Academy, an international nonprofit preschool and afterschool program, and The Global Purpose Approach. She is also the co-founder of Multicultural Jewish Alliance. Since 2021, Johnson has served as the Chief Belonging, Culture, & Equity Officer of Friends of the Children, a program providing systemically disadvantaged children with long-term professional mentors. In 2022, she was elected as School Board Chairperson of the largest and most diverse school district in Georgia. Soon after her election, Republican State Senator Burt Jones requested an investigation into her after a video she made about societal racism circulated; her call for the end of “anti-Black capitalism” and statement that white people are socialized to be racist sparked particular backlash. In response to the widespread hostility and accusations she received, community leaders and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Atlanta issued statements of support for Johnson, who maintained her position as Chairperson. Johnson has also written seven books; in 2021 she published Freedom Dreams: Poetry, Prose, & Paintings, which includes themes of “social justice, [Judaism], Black women, pandemic, nature, freedom, and love.”   

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Dr. Tarece Johnson." (Viewed on November 21, 2024) <https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/johnson-tarece>.