CONNOR HOFFMAN
Managing Editor
Last year, SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher announced that she was resigning from the position. Last week, SUNY finished their nation-wide search for a new chancellor with the appointment of Kristina Johnson.
“I’m very excited and grateful to be here and the opportunity to serve a system in a state whose governor has put higher education front and center of his agenda,” Johnson said in an interview with the Democrat & Chronicle.
Johnson grew up in Denver, Colorado. She got her B.S., M.S. and Ph.D degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
Since her graduation from Stanford she has had quite a long and extensive career in engineering.
In 1985, she was hired as an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder. During her time in Colorado she co-founded several companies for science research.
She became the Dean of the School of Engineering at Duke University in 1999. In 2007, she became the Senior Vice President and Provost of John Hopkins University.
President Barack Obama appointed Johnson as the Under Secretary of Energy in 2009. She passed the Senate with unanimous consent.
Also, she is the founder of Enduring Hydro, a hydropower energy firm. She also has been a director of Minerals Technologies Inc., Nortel and Guidant Corporation. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Boston Scientific Corporation, Cisco Systems and AES Corporation.