Michelle Johnson is Associate Professor of the Practice Emerita, Multimedia Journalism, Boston University. She retired from Boston University in 2022. Johnson is the former Academic Representative on the board of the National Association of Black Journalists. Johnson is a former editor for the Boston Globe and boston.com.
For more than 20 years she has conducted multimedia training workshops for student and professional journalists for a variety of organizations including: the Online News Association, the Maynard Institute, the National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has trained hundreds of professional journalists and students from across the nation and around the world. At Boston University, Johnson oversaw Boston University News Service, a showcase for work produced by BU Journalism students.BU News Service coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing was nationally recognized by the Online News Association with awards in both student and professional categories in 2013. Johnson was named 2013 Educator of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists. In 2014 BU News Service was named the top online student news site by the Associated Press, Massachusetts/Rhode Island, and the Society of Professional Journalists, Region I. Her students have won awards for class projects from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. In 2015 Johnson was selected by Google and the Society of Professional Journalists to be trained as a Google NewsLab trainer. Under this program she conducted training in newsrooms and at professional journalism conferences across the nation until she retired in 2022.
