As an Air Force Academy cadet, Johnson was the first woman to serve as cadet wing commander (senior ranking cadet), and starred on the women's basketball team, scoring over 1,700 points.[2][3] She was twice named an Academic All-American and was inducted into the Academic All-American Hall of Fame in 2007, making her the first woman from the Academy and one of only six graduates with that distinction. Also, she was selected as the Academy's first woman Rhodes Scholar in her First Class (senior) Year, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in operations research in 1981.
A transport and tanker pilot, Johnson was recognized as an Honorary Fellow of Brasenose College at Oxford in 2013, and received the 2014 American Legion Auxiliary Woman of the Year Award.[4] Johnson was awarded a star (#42) on The Flag for Hope on June 18, 2016 in recognition of her outstanding military service.[5][6]
2011 Joint Flag Officer Warfighting Course, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
2013 The Harvard Seminar for New Presidents, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Mass.
Military career
Johnson attended pilot training at Williams Air Force Base in Arizona from May 1983 to July 1984, and completed her three-month C-141 qualification training at Altus AFB, Oklahoma, in October of that year.
On August 12, 2013, Johnson assumed command as Superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy, the first woman to hold the position.[7] After 36 years of active duty, she retired from the Air Force in October 2017.[3]
Following her retirement from the Air Force in 2017, Johnson was appointed as senior vice president and head of referee operations for the National Basketball Association (NBA) on October 12. She assumed her new position on October 16 and stepped down two years later.[8] Her duties included overseeing the recruitment, training, development, and evaluation of NBA referees, as well as the NBA replay center.[1]