Dr. Johnson is an associate professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with joint appointments in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health and the Department of Mental Health in the Bloomberg School of Public Health. She serves as Director of the Rales Center for the Integration of Health and Education, Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Consortium for School-Based Health Solutions, and Director of the General Academic Pediatrics Fellowship Program.

Dr. Johnson’s research focuses on understanding the biological and social mechanisms that perpetuate health inequalities across the life course and across generations and ways to interrupt them. Current projects include an investigation of maternal stress in pregnancy and its impact on child growth via epigenetic mechanisms, and a three-generation study of families in Baltimore focused on understanding pathways to success in the context of early adversity. Her school-based work is focused on evaluating new models of school health to reduce health and educational inequality in Baltimore.