Dr. Angela Johnson, PhD

Keynote: Advancing Power and Precedent for Black Motherhood and Breastfeeding: Building Social Eco-Systems as a Strategy

Dr. Angela Johnson is an applied social scientist recognized nationally as a research scholar, advocate, and published author in the area of maternal health and breastfeeding disparities. 

Johnson serves as community outreach program specialist at Michigan Medicine Department of Community Health Services, Program for Multicultural Health; she leads the development of education, training, and research programs designed to reduce racial and other social inequities in collaboration with a host of national, state, and local, partners. 

Her research is community-focused and intended to translate to interventions and programs that effectively support African American women and their families. Dr. Johnson leads translational studies designed to highlight psychosocial risk factors and to inform interventions that address disparate breastfeeding behavior among African American women. Results from her work are published in several national and international peer-reviewed journals. As well her research findings have informed outcomes in maternal child health programs and policy. Johnson Co-chairs the BBC research committee. 

Dr. Johnson trained as a (NIH-funded) post-doctoral research fellow at the Institute for Clinical Health Research (MICHR) at University of Michigan (Go Blue!). She earned her PhD as well as her Masters’ degree in Sociology and Urban Affairs from Michigan State University (Go Spartans!), and her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Amherst College in Massachusetts. 

Finally, and most important of all, Dr. Johnson is the proud mother of three: Khai, Olivia, and Kaleb and happy wife to one: Oliver Edward Johnson.