“I wake up every day motivated to make the world the absolute best place it can possibility be – and it all starts with me.”

This is the philosophy by which Carol Johnson lives, and it is why her passion and commitment to civil rights, social justice, worker protections and economic development and empowerment for everyone – regardless of their race, national origin, gender, sexual orientation or socioeconomic status – makes her a tireless, passionate and effective leader and advocate for equal rights and economic advancement.

Johnson is a civil rights and labor law attorney and consultant currently working with the City of Fort Worth. Johnson formerly served as Austin’s first Civil Rights Officer and Director of its Office of Civil Rights and has spent her professional career advocating for housing protections, educational equality, fair wages, safe labor standards, workers’ compensation for injured workers, police reform, and other important and necessary civil rights protections in housing, education, employment and public accommodations.

Other firsts include serving as the first African American Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in Garland County, Arkansas, and Directing the State of Arkansas’ first and only civil rights enforcement agency. Johnson later became the Civil Rights Director for the State of Oregon (BOLI), tasked with defending rights to equal opportunity in employment, housing, public accommodations, vocational career schools, whistleblower, FMLA, pay equity, health benefit protections, paid leave and other state protected laws across more than 30 protected classes and bases. Johnson previously served as Chief of Intake, Programs and Compliance at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for Region X, serving Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska. Johnson also served as a Regional Director with the U.S. Department of Justice (CRS) for the Central and Rocky Mountain Regions.

Johnson notes the highlight of her civil rights career as ushering in civil rights enforcement in Arkansas where she served for 14 years as Executive Director of the Arkansas Fair Housing Commission (AFHC) – a new state agency and the only state civil rights enforcement agency charged with protecting the civil rights of Arkansans.  Johnson worked in a bi-partisan capacity under the Executive leadership of the past three Arkansas Governors.

As Director of the sole civil rights enforcement agency in the State of Arkansas, Director Johnson had the distinction of creating a name for Arkansas as a leader in civil rights and fair housing enforcement by building a quasi-judicial, regulatory, enforcement agency which receives, investigates and otherwise resolves fair housing/fair lending complaints within the State of Arkansas’ 75 counties. During her tenure with AFHC, Director Johnson resolved numerous civil rights, fair housing and fair lending cases and assisted many Arkansas municipalities in creating and/or amending existing ordinances to comply with civil rights requirements and worked with numerous housing authorities, housing developers, housing providers, lenders, real estate professionals, and others to lend critical technical support aimed at open housing access to protect both the public interest and the needs of the housing industry. Johnson also led Arkansas in creating fair housing/fair lending education programs and training opportunities for those in the housing community and regularly trains housing providers, architects, property owners, managers, developers, consultants, appraisers, attorneys, municipalities, non-profits organizations, home-seekers and others on applicable fair housing/fair lending laws and regulations.

Johnson is past Chair of the Arkansas Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, an independent, bipartisan, fact-finding federal agency, empowered to, “inform the development  national civil rights policy and enhance enforcement of federal civil rights laws by studying alleged deprivations of voting rights and alleged discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or in the administration of justice. The Commission plays a vital role in advancing civil rights through objective and comprehensive investigation, research, and analysis on issues of fundamental concern to the federal government and the public.”

Johnson serves on numerous boards and committees and is a member of the National Bar Association and The Links, Incorporated. Oregon Governor Kate Brown previously appointed Johnson to the Oregon Public Safety Training and Standards Task Force created to address concerns of racial inequity in interactions between law enforcement and people of color. Additionally, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler appointed Johnson to the Portland Police Citizen’s Review Committee, an advisory body to the Portland Bureau’s Independent Police Review (IPR) and Internal Affairs Committee.

Johnson has worked extensively in the areas of police reform and, as Chair of the Arkansas Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, held a series of committee hearings in 2019 to review the issue of mass incarceration and its negative impact on communities of color.

Director Johnson is a former executive board member of the International Association of Official Human Rights Agencies (IAOHRA) whose mission is to provide opportunities and forums for the exchange of ideas and information among member agencies and human rights advocates.

A licensed attorney, Director Johnson has worked in various areas of administrative, civil and criminal law, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas; a Master of Arts degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a Juris Doctor from the William H. Bowen School of Law.