Jean Johnson is Executive Vice President of Public Agenda and head of its Education Insights division, which works to enhance public and community engagement in public education. With colleague Scott Bittle, she is the co-author of Where Does the Money Go? (HarperCollins, 2008), a user-friendly guide to help typical Americans understand the debate over the federal budget and national debt.

She has also been a principal author or co-author of Public Agenda studies on education, families, religion, race relations, manners and civility, retirement, welfare, and health care. Her articles, op-eds, and blog postings have been carried in a wide variety of media outlets including USA Today, Education Week, and The Huffington Post.

Prior to joining Public Agenda in 1980, Ms. Johnson was Resource Director for Action for Children’s Television in Boston, where she authored a number of articles on the effect of television on children and adolescents. In addition to her work at Public Agenda, she is a director of Sugal Records, a small, New York-based classical music recording company. Ms. Johnson graduated from Mount Holyoke College, and holds master’s degrees from Brown University and Simmons College.