(She/her) 2025

Johna is a blind and neurodivergent PhD student, university educator, and advocate dedicated to advancing disability inclusion in higher education and international policy. Johna earned her B.A. in psychology from Mercer Univeraity, where she graduated summa cum laude, and she completed her M.A. in comparative social policy and welfare at Tampere University in Finland.

She also founded ABLE Mercer, a nonprofit supporting disabled college students through peer mentoring and advocacy, and serves as Assistant Director of Fellowships and Scholarships and Instructor of Integrative Studies at Mercer University. 

A Fulbright and Gilman Scholar, Johna has worked with the European Parliament, Save the Children International, and Eurasia Foundation on disability policy. Her current research explores the use of playful learning frameworks as a pedagogical tool for disabled university students, and she brings a global, evidence-based perspective to the Disabled Leaders Network Advanced Leaders Cohort. Johna’s ultimate goal is to become a tenured professor of education or a university president.