Yolanda Johnson is a proud resident of the Adams Park Community of 
  Southwest Atlanta. She is a product of public schools, and a practicing
  attorney who has been actively engaged in the community since she made
  Atlanta her home more than a decade ago.

  She began volunteering with the Atlanta Public Schools (APS) when she
  agreed to serve on a committee redeveloping the curriculum for the Law and
  Government Magnet at Therrell High School. This experience gave her unique
  system insight, and firsthand knowledge of how even a small group of
  dedicated people can make differences in the lives of our children: our future.

  She is a former President of the Georgia Association of Black Women
  Attorneys (GABWA) and served for five years on GABWA's Executive Board.

In her present capacity as Supervising Counsel for the Georgia Department of Corrections, Yolanda regularly interacts with many of the 55,000 inmates within the state's custody to ensure that the inmates have access to the justice system.

Through her work, she has witnessed the complexity of circumstances that can destroy the promise of a child's future. A good many of our incarcerated were former students of our public schools. She knows that education changes lives.

Yolanda has demonstrated her commitment to public education through her involvement in numerous community activities and volunteer efforts. She tutored students in an after school program during law school. She also participates in many youth-oriented programs, such as Career Days and Big Brother/ Big Sister. She even organized and facilitated a citywide Youth Empowerment Summit in 1998 through an Am erican Bar Association (ABA) initiative.

A culmination of these experiences led Yolanda to study issues that impact student achievement, evaluate leadership and governance models, and examine how schools are funded. With the opportunity to serve as
the District 6 Representative on the Atlanta Board of Education, Yolanda will commit the time, resources and most of all the vision to ensure the promise of our children's future.