Don | studentsb4politics

Don Johnson for GSA President

Born in Houston, TX and raised in a Huntsville, TX, Don comes from a family committed to public service. His mother worked as an educator and policy writer on the state level. As a result, he grew up being exposed to strong political climates. His brothers' godparents were the late Mickey Leland and Barbara Jordan. His mother knew how to push growth in statewide education efforts, and always stressed the importance of putting the people before the politics. She always said "it is an easy thing to say and a very hard thing to do." At times we have to ascribe to the political climate for our own interest. It is when we completely compromise our goal that politics have corrupted the end goal.

Don draws his passion from his various personal experiences. He is a 5th year PhD candidate from the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department. His is also a cancer survivor, a parent, an activist, a reformist, and businessman. He tends to lead with his heart at times. It was especially the case as the GSA Vice President for Diversity, Service, Equity and Inclusion as there were many issues that related to his identity. If we sometimes don't care about about the problem, then how will we empathize with our constituents. He also tends to lead tactically, as he always wieghs out every move. He definitely gets this from his late Father and Uncle, as they were both high ranking officiers in the US military. For example, as an undergraduate student at Occidental College, he co-led an effort in forming better academic support services and even an academic department (SSAP and Critical Theory and Social Justice Department). When the student government was disbanded in his first year at Occidental, Don was one of the lead authors of the current student government constitution pushing for both direct and representative democracy.

Don is especially strategic as an elected officer on the GSA executive. He has co-authored/collaborated a total of 9 resolutions (10 if he counts the resolution to save the VP Diversity position in 2012), led unprecedented constitutional/by-law reform, chaired and appointed to various internal and campus wide committees, and rewrote the way an elected officer works with leading officer reform in reforming his own office. Don practices collective leadership in a representative democracy. Otherwise, all of this work would not have been accomplished.

Don also believes in developing the long term goals of the Graduate Student Association. As the GSA President, he aims to change the way council and executive approaches policy. He aims to make GSA council the site for stronger legislative authority, and identity that is separate from the GSA executive. He wants more involvment in from council, and wants to work on supporting council representatives, who give hours of precious time to represent their consituencies. As GSA President, Don aims to encourage every executive to enforce council's will more than the will of the executive and sometimes administration. As a result, he aims to give the reigns of leadership back to the students!