Jessica Johnson

Jessica Johnson is a summa cum laude Howard University graduate and recipient of over $200,000 in scholarships. She is the Founder and Executive Director of The Scholarship Academy, a nonprofit organization that helps low-income/first-generation families create 4- year college funding plans. She has spent the last decade serving as a national scholarship expert for organizations such as the New York Department of Education, the Black Male Engagement Community, and the GEAR UP Georgia Program.

 The daughter of two educators, Jessica authored “The Scholarship Workbook, a 3-step guide to securing top scholarship awards. Through The Scholarship Academy, Jessica has helped students claim more than $35 million in private scholarships, earning her several national fellowships including Echoing Green, the Ashoka Changemaker Award, the Points of Light Foundation’s Civic Accelerator and most recently, The Global Good Fund Fellowship.  She has been featured on Ebony.com, Black Enterprise, the Black Issues in Higher Education Magazine, the NAACP Crisis Magazine and on the cover of react magazine for her work empowering young people to pursue debt-free degrees.

Jessica received her Master’s Degree in Public Administration from American University.  She has and served as the Fulton County Office of Workforce Development’s Youth Council Chair as well as an Inaugural member of the Atlanta Youth Commission.   

Her civic awards include Ebony Magazine’s Educate Young Minds Award, Root Magazine’s Top 100 Emerging Leaders, and the Center for Financial Enterprise Development’s Innovative College Access Champion Award.