
          Meet Wendy S. Johnson, SRC's New Executive Director
          
            
              StaffStaff
            
          
          Vol. 17, No. 3-4, 1995 p. 21
          
          Wendy S. Johnson, former executive director of the Appalachian Community Fund, comes to the Southern_Regional_Council with a record of fifteen years leading effective and strategic nonprofit programs in the region.
          Johnson served first as an appointed member and then, in 1979, as executive director of the Human Rights Commission of Bowling Green, Kentucky, (her hometown) where she made effective use of the Commission's powers to take complaints, determine probable cause, and hold administrative hearings on allegations of discrimination in employment and housing.
          Seeking new arenas to expand her involvement in pushing for equity, Johnson joined Southeast Women's Employment Coalition to lead a newly
created project on non-traditional employment and eventually served as SWEC executive director. A coalition of women leaders organized to assist and support challenges to systemic race and sex discrimination in the South and Appalachia, SWEC held that economic opportunity was at the heart of this struggle for justice. Through organizing, advocacy, and effective use of the administrative complaint system and Title VII of the Civil_Rights_Act, SWEC documented and changed employment policies and practices which adversely impacted low_income black and white_women.
          A commitment to build the resources necessary for successful community-based projects led Johnson to her post as executive director of the Appalachian Community Fund. Through the ACF, a community foundation established to bring financial and technical assistance to organizing and advocacy work, she helped build support for numerous grassroots projects in the Appalachian counties of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West_Virginia.
          As co-chair of the National Network of Grantmakers, an organization with a membership of individuals involved in a broad spectrum of grantmaking interests, from individual donors to the staff and trustees of foundations--both large and small, private and public, corporate and community
Johnson has worked to promote diversity in philanthropy,
as well as exchange information and strategies about
social change fundraising and grantmaking between donors and activists.
          From ACF, the transition to SRC "embodies all the dynamics for one to
try to live in a world that develops full potential and equity," says
Johnson. "I am ready to put my shoulder to this work, to join with
other folks who have stake in this organization to shape a strong
future role, as we continue to work for fairness, equity, and basic
human rights."
        
