Alicia Johnson
Alicia M. Johnson is a native of Savannah, Georgia, where she earned her degrees in English and Communications and master’s in management & organizational leadership, respectively; she is also a 2023 doctoral candidate for DBA in organizational leadership. Alicia is a certified grant writer and administrator and a lifetime certified facilitator for Bridges Out of Poverty. She brings over twenty-seven years of progressive leadership experience in program and community development with specific expertise in economic inclusion, DEI, strategic planning, leadership, program, and organizational development.
Alicia is currently the executive director for Step Up Savannah, leading the strategic direction of the nonprofit organization focused on economic inclusion and financial security in the SE Region of Georgia. Before her work at Step Up, she served as the Director of Medicaid Marketing and Member Services for WellCare of Georgia, Inc., where she developed and oversaw the company’s statewide outreach and member services program creating a Social Determinants of Health framework for over 545,000 Medicaid lives, with over 3,500 partners across the state.
Alicia has had an expansive career in both the public and private sectors. Notably, she served as the first Public Information Officer for the first African American DA in the eastern judicial circuit, creating community engagement and transparency for the Chatham County Community. She also scaled and provided an administrative overhaul of the Violence Intervention Program, the first forward-facing social justice program of its kind for this region of the country. She has received statewide and national recognition for her work and advocacy in the public sector and, in 2022, was appointed a Bank of America Racial Economic Justice Fellow by Prosperity Now. Alicia has shared her expertise on various panels nationally, statewide, and locally.
Likewise, she has served on community and state boards, including the Black Heritage Festival, Mayor’s Leadership Council for a Healthy Savannah, Lifeline for Children, Ferst Foundation, Orange Duffle Bag, Boys and Girls Club, Georgia School Social Workers Conference, and Chatham County Safety Net Council. Today she serves on the Coastal Georgia Indicators Council, is the acting Co- Chair of the Mayor’s taskforce for Racial Equity and Leadership, and member of the Advocates for a Restorative Community in Savannah, United Way Executive Council, BIPOC Nonprofit Leadership Council, DEEP Center Action Policy Team, Eastside United Governance Board, Urban League of Greater Atlanta Steering Committee, and the Employee Disciplinary Appeals Board for Chatham County.
She is the proud wife of Illustrator and SCAD Professor H. Pernell Johnson and the doting mother of one daughter, Alexis Samone Dudley, one son, Caleb Pernell, and one grandson, Devin O’Ryan Dudley, Jr.