Charlotte Johnson, JD

Vice President, Student Affairs

Charlotte Johnson, J.D. is Vice President for Student Affairs of the University of San Diego. Ms. Johnson served as the Vice President and Dean of Students at Scripps College in Claremont, California. Before joining Scripps in 2014, she was the Chief Student Affairs Officer at Dartmouth College and Colgate University. Ms. Johnson also served on the senior leadership team at the University of Michigan Law School. A practicing Catholic, Ms. Johnson was drawn to USD due to its mission and vision as an engaged, contemporary Catholic university.

The impact of Ms. Johnson’s work is broad. While a member of the senior leadership team at the University of Michigan Law School, she served on the core communications and legal strategy teams in defense of the Gratz and Grutter cases. The cases were ultimately decided by the United States Supreme Court, which upheld the constitutional validity of race-conscious admissions policies in higher education. Ms. Johnson was a founding board member of Culture of Respect, which focuses on sexual assault prevention. While dean of the college at Dartmouth, Ms. Johnson convened a national summit on sexual assault, and she was twice invited to the White House during the Obama administration, along with other leaders in higher education, in connection with “It’s On Us,” a national campaign aimed at preventing sexual violence on college campuses.

Ms. Johnson holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Detroit Mercy, where she graduated first in her class. She earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School. The first female African-American partner at her Detroit law firm, Ms. Johnson has since then helped blaze a path for other women and people of color aspiring to leadership positions in the legal profession and higher education.

Ms. Johnson has served on various local and national boards throughout her career, including Culture of Respect, Downtown Women’s Center of Los Angeles and the Boston Preparatory Foundation. In July of 2020, Ms. Johnson was appointed to the University of Michigan Law School Advisory Board on Race and Racism, on which she serves with other distinguished alumni and Law School faculty.