Helen Anderson Johnson receiving the Helen DeVos College of Education Distinguished Alum award at the department breakfast during homecoming weekend. Dean of HDCOE Dr. Bill Estes is shown presenting the award to Mrs. Johnson.
Lee University’s Helen DeVos College of Education honored Helen Anderson Johnson as the recipient of the department’s 2018 Distinguished Alumnus Award at a department breakfast during Homecoming.
“If we could produce 150 teachers per year as carbon copies of Mrs. Helen Johnson, we would change the world,” said Jason Robinson, assistant professor of education.
Mrs. Johnson graduated from Lee as Miss Lee College in 1961 and was given an assignment from Church of God Missions to teach in the Bahamas that same year. She has since spent over 40 years in education.
She has served as a teacher and administrator in Florida and throughout Tennessee and taught many age groups, including kindergarten, middle school, and college.
Mrs. Johnson has been named Hamilton County Education Association Secondary Distinguished Teacher of the Year and Stokely Fellow by University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and has received the Ocoee Middle School Teacher of Excellence in Reading Award and the International Reading Association’s Tennessee Reading Association Literacy Award. She has also served as President of the Tennessee Reading Association, grant writer for Bradley Schools, and served on the committee for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
Mrs. Johnson holds affiliations with multiple educational programs, including Florida Reading Association, Tennessee Reading Association, International Reading Association, Tennessee Education Association, National Education Association, and Delta Kappa Gamma, an international society for key women educators.
“The example Mrs. Johnson has set for us, along with her professional commitment, makes us all proud to be associated with Lee’s Helen DeVos College of Education,” said Dr. Robinson.