LORRETTA JOHNSON is the newly-elected
AFT Executive Vice President. Dr. Lorretta Johnson was elected AFT executive vice president in 2008. She also serves as president of AFT-Maryland, as president of the Baltimore Teachers Union's paraprofessional chapter, and as chair of the AFT Paraprofessionals and School-Related Personnel program and policy council.

Before becoming AFT executive vice president, Johnson was an AFT vice president, serving in that role for 30 years.

Johnson started her career in 1966 as a teacher's aide at a Baltimore elementary school, where she earned $2.25 an hour and received no benefits. To improve the work situation of paraprofessionals like her, she organized them into the BTU. In 1970, she negotiated the union's first contract, which had a grievance procedure as its hallmark. That experience laid the foundation for Johnson's union activism; her efforts have helped the Baltimore Teachers Union become a lobbying and political force in city hall, the Baltimore community and the Maryland state Legislature. Over the years, she also served as chief negotiator for teacher and paraprofessional contracts.

Johnson holds several leadership positions outside of the AFT. She is vice president of the Maryland Metropolitan Council, AFL-CIO; a trustee for the Maryland State AFL-CIO; director of the Municipal Employees Credit Union in Baltimore; president of the Baltimore chapter of the A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI); treasurer of the national board of APRI; and the assistant treasurer for the Baltimore County chapter of the NAACP. She was also named 2005 Labor Leader of the Year by the Maryland Democratic Party.

Johnson received her teaching degree through the Career Opportunities Program at Coppin State University in Maryland. She has received numerous awards, including an honorary doctorate degree from Coppin State, a community service award from the United Way, and a volunteer service award from the Maryland State AFL-CIO. Ebony magazine included her in an article titled "Blacks of Influence in Unions." Johnson also was a recipient of the Albert Shanker PSRP Pioneer Award and the Service Award from the Baltimore Teachers Union's paraprofessional chapter.

Of all her accomplishments, Johnson is the proud mother of three children, whom she raised with her late husband, Leonard, seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.