Responsibilities
Whitney Johnson is the associate athletic director for student-athlete development, diversity and inclusion at BYU. Her position oversees the strategic vision and program implementation for diversity and inclusion within BYU Athletics, including for minority student-athletes in the core areas of race/ethnicity, international, LGBTQ & SSA, and student-athletes of other faiths. Johnson is a board member of Return on Inclusion and Untold Athletes. She is also an active member of Women Leaders in College Sports. She participated in the 2019 NCAA Common Ground V in Austin, Texas.
Years at BYU
2021-present
Education
- M.S. in Business Administration, Southern Utah (2018)
- B.S. in Organizational Leadership, New Mexico (2016)
Prior to BYU
Johnson worked at Indiana University, where she specialized in student-athlete development, including diversity and inclusion efforts. She then worked at the NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis in the leadership development department. Among her efforts at the NCAA, she created a mentorship program to aid recently-graduated student-athletes in navigating the athletics industry. Johnson comes to BYU from a position working at the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She specifically worked to coordinate worldwide missionary efforts, including conducting team trainings on department policies and procedures, conducting onboarding training, ensuring missionaries were medically cleared to serve in foreign countries and collaborating with church leaders worldwide.
Personal
- Hometown: Highland, Utah
- Played women’s basketball at the University of New Mexico from 2011-2016 and at Southern Utah University from 2016-2018
- Loves breakfast burritos, fantasy books, vacations at the beach, Broadway musicals and rock climbing
- Served in the Mexico Mexico City Northwest Mission
Johnson was a student-athlete on the women’s basketball team at both the University of New Mexico and Southern Utah University. At SUU, Johnson served as the Student Athlete Advisory Committee Vice President. She was academic all-conference at both schools.
Johnson worked at Indiana University, where she specialized in student-athlete development, including diversity and inclusion efforts. She then worked at the NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis in the leadership development department. Among her efforts at the NCAA, she created a mentorship program to aid recently-graduated student-athletes in navigating the athletics industry. Johnson comes to BYU from a position working at the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She specifically worked to coordinate worldwide missionary efforts, including conducting team trainings on department policies and procedures, conducting onboarding training, ensuring missionaries were medically cleared to serve in foreign countries and collaborating with church leaders worldwide.
Johnson is a board member of Return on Inclusion and Untold Athletes. She is also an active member of Women Leaders in College Sports. She participated in the 2019 NCAA Common Ground V in Austin, Texas.
Johnson has a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership from UNM and an MBA from SUU. She served as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico.