SCHOLAR | LEADER | AUTHOR | ARTIST | STRATEGIST | UNCORN
Amber Johnson, PhD
Amber L. Johnson, Ph.D. is an award-winning scholar, administrator, coach, and artivist committed to bridging divides, fostering healing, and cultivating the conditions for people and institutions to thrive. Currently serving as Assistant Vice Chancellor and Chief of Staff for the Division of Equity & Inclusion at the University of California, Berkeley, Dr Johnson brings more than 20 years of experience in higher education leadership, community engagement, and social justice innovation.
20+ Years Experience
A leading voice in communication and social justice, Dr Johnson co-founded and directed the Institute for Healing Justice & Equity at Saint Louis University and created The Justice Fleet, a mobile social justice museum with nationally recognised exhibits such as Radical Forgiveness, Radical Imagination, and Transfuturism. Through art, dialogue, and play, their work helps communities confront systemic injustice, envision liberated futures, and co-create practical, community-centred solutions.
Dr. Johnson’s scholarship interrogates how language, media, and institutions shape identity, power, and possibility. Their research spans intersectional social justice, narrative and identity negotiation, health equity, and media representation, earning more than 35 national and international awards, including the National Communication Association’s Golden Anniversary Monograph Award and multiple honours for engaged scholarship and activism. Their work appears in top journals, two authored books, and numerous edited collections, often advancing new frameworks for humanising equity and healing justice.
In addition to their academic and administrative leadership, Dr Johnson is the founder of a growing coaching and consulting practice focused on executive leadership coaching, organisational development, and energetic coaching. This work supports leaders, teams, and institutions who are navigating this complex moment and preparing for what comes next. Drawing on deep experience in healing-centred leadership, communication, systems transformation, and embodied wisdom, Dr Johnson helps executives, emerging leaders, and mission-driven organisations cultivate clarity, courage, and capacity. Their coaching approach blends research-backed strategy with intuition, energetic grounding, and a commitment to helping people lead authentically, imaginatively, and with purpose.
Known for building trust across differences, Dr. Johnson’s leadership style blends flexible essentialism with an ethic of care, compassion, and accountability. Whether facilitating reconciliation in polarized spaces, designing future-oriented strategy, supporting leaders in transition, or guiding institutions through equity-centered transformation, Dr. Johnson brings people together to imagine bold futures beyond division.
A nationally recognised keynote speaker and thought leader, Dr. Johnson has addressed audiences on topics ranging from truth and reconciliation in healthcare to radical imagination as a tool for civic engagement. Their current projects, Humanising Equity—Healing Justice and Critical Futures: Reimagining Academia’s Relevance, continue to expand the conversation on how we build just, inclusive, and thriving communities.
Dr. Johnson’s scholarship interrogates how language, media, and institutions shape identity, power, and possibility. Their research spans intersectional social justice, narrative and identity negotiation, health equity, and media representation, earning more than 35 national and international awards, including the National Communication Association’s Golden Anniversary Monograph Award and multiple honours for engaged scholarship and activism. Their work appears in top journals, two authored books, and numerous edited collections, often advancing new frameworks for humanising equity and healing justice.
In addition to their academic and administrative leadership, Dr Johnson is the founder of a growing coaching and consulting practice focused on executive leadership coaching, organisational development, and energetic coaching. This work supports leaders, teams, and institutions who are navigating this complex moment and preparing for what comes next. Drawing on deep experience in healing-centred leadership, communication, systems transformation, and embodied wisdom, Dr Johnson helps executives, emerging leaders, and mission-driven organisations cultivate clarity, courage, and capacity. Their coaching approach blends research-backed strategy with intuition, energetic grounding, and a commitment to helping people lead authentically, imaginatively, and with purpose.
Known for building trust across differences, Dr. Johnson’s leadership style blends flexible essentialism with an ethic of care, compassion, and accountability. Whether facilitating reconciliation in polarized spaces, designing future-oriented strategy, supporting leaders in transition, or guiding institutions through equity-centered transformation, Dr. Johnson brings people together to imagine bold futures beyond division.
A nationally recognised keynote speaker and thought leader, Dr. Johnson has addressed audiences on topics ranging from truth and reconciliation in healthcare to radical imagination as a tool for civic engagement. Their current projects, Humanising Equity—Healing Justice and Critical Futures: Reimagining Academia’s Relevance, continue to expand the conversation on how we build just, inclusive, and thriving communities.