Baylor Welcomes Title IX Coordinator Laura Johnson, Ph.D.
They say college can be the most formative years of a person’s life. The lessons learned in the classroom are just as valuable as the ones learned outside of it.
Title IX Coordinator Laura Johnson, Ph.D., said she knows this all too well since she’s lived it — as a resident director paying her way through graduate school. For Johnson, the daily encounters with students in the dorm fostered her holistic perspective of students — and redirected her career path. Rather than care for clients as a counselor would, Johnson found her calling to care for students in higher education.
Five months into her transition from wearing many hats at Georgetown (Ky.) College — Vice President for Student Life, Dean of Students and Title IX Coordinator — to Baylor’s new Title IX Coordinator, Johnson explains the experiences that cultivated her compassionate advocacy.
What do you bring to the University as Title IX Coordinator?
A personal connection so students feel there’s a warm, caring body behind the Title IX Office — not that it’s just a service we have for students, but that there are people who genuinely care about them, as individuals. I hope this interpersonal relationship piece will help us to be better advocates for students and help them to be more willing to reach out to us.
How have your previous experiences as Title IX Coordinator, Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students at Georgetown College shaped your approach to this new role?
Residence life shaped my perspective to see students holistically, which has sharpened my ability to care for the individual. Similarly, my experience as Vice President put all the pieces together, shaping my understanding of how the institution works, as a whole. I learned how to leverage the existing resources and collaborate with others to better serve students. It’s affirmed that my passion is in the larger institutional environment because of the expertise we have in resources. Rather than being the jack-of-all-trades, I see this as an opportunity to sharpen my skills and feel like I’m making a larger difference.
What sparked your passion to serve college students?
I originally wanted to be a counselor, but I got into this line of work as a means to pay for grad school. And then all of a sudden, I discovered I liked working in this realm because I’m able to see more of an individual holistically and get to know who they are. In residence life, I saw who they were during the day when they were coming back and forth from class, and who they were after 11 p.m. — whether they were just having fun in the hallway or being shy and secluded or responding to crisis at 2 a.m. It’s helped me a lot in terms of understanding that what happens to them at 2 a.m. impacts them at noon the next day. It’s a different thing to see it in the middle of the night and understand why they’re late for class the next day or missing it, versus only hearing that.
One of my strengths is engaging, interacting and connecting with people, so I hope that’s one of the things I can bring to the Title IX Office and to the University.
What do you want faculty/staff to know most about the Title IX Office?
While the Title IX team has been under a lot of scrutiny and there have been a lot of challenges, the people that have persisted have done so because of their personal and professional fortitude and competencies. They’re talented and skilled; they dive deep into their work and they’re very, very dedicated to getting it right. None of them are here to simply get a paycheck. You don’t do work this heavy just for a paycheck — you do it because you care and you’re willing to give of yourself in that way.
Moving forward, what goals do you have for the Title IX Office?
We’re looking to have more specialized outreach programming. So, instead of focusing so much on responsible employee training, we want to equip faculty and staff with an understanding of how to respond to dating violence, personal safety, resiliency after victimization, etc., so that we can have a bigger impact. I want us to be seen as not just the disciplinarians, but as the advocates and the resources. When we’re seen like that, we’re going to have more opportunities to engage.