Jay Johnson

Colonel Jay Johnson is an assistant professor of instruction and director of the Voinovich Academy for Excellence in Public Service located at Ohio University's Dublin Campus. Jay joined the Voinovich School in 2016 with more than 30 years of government/military experience with an extensive background as a Marine Corps officer collaborating with interagency and international organizations in several executive level leadership positions.  He currently teaches across all three modalities of the MPA program with a focus on strategic leadership, public value and strength-based coaching.

Jay served in the Marine Corps as a combat engineer in over 20 countries, where he led Marines across a wide spectrum of organizations at the platoon, company, battalion and division levels.  His focus was always on taking care of his Marines by developing and inspiring men and women who are serving our nation to become agile, adaptive and innovative leaders.  In addition to his military experience, Jay has been a small group instructor and assistant professor teaching a range of leadership and strategic level topics. He has also served on several conferences and committee panels dealing with advanced strategic leadership studies, security cooperation and national security.  Jay has a passion for helping build leadership capacity for those in public service across Ohio’s local, state, and nonprofit organizations.  His mantra: “We build today’s leaders into tomorrow’s public service champions.”

Jay is a graduate of Ohio University and holds master’s degrees in public administration from Webster University and national resource strategy from National Defense University (The Eisenhower School). He volunteers his time with the Marine Corps Toys for Tots Program, Simon Kenton Pathfinders, and Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).