Biography
(1933-2011)
Co-Founder of Student Development in Higher Education Program and 41st President of ACPA
Dr. Cynthia S. Johnson was a principal founder of Student Development in Higher Education at CSULB. She earned a bachelor’s degree from CSU Los Angeles and pursued graduate work at UC Irvine. She earned a doctorate from Michigan State University. She held many positions in student affairs at CSULA and UCI. Her faculty appointments were at Columbia University and the University of Maryland.
A highly influential leader in the American College Personnel Association, she was its 41stpresident from 1980 to 1981. Dr. Johnson received numerous accolades in her long career. Perhaps most indicative of her influence on the profession was the Lifetime Achievement Award given to her by ACPA in 2009.
Dr. Johnson said that she came to CSULB for the challenge of creating a new kind of student development program that would bring together a diverse group of students and transform them into a community of scholar practitioners. The Student Development in Higher Education (SDHE) program she began has matured much as she envisioned it, attracting high-quality students who become successful leaders in the field of higher education.
A more detailed professional biography of Dr. Johnson is available here. We thank the Center for Archival Collections at Bowling Green State University for permission to use this document.
