Sharon D. Johnson

Sharon D. Johnson has over 20 years experience in the arts, entertainment, and media industries. She has been a member of the Writers Guild of America, west since 1993 and her television writing has been produced on ABC, FOX, and UPN networks. The New York City native holds a B.A. in the Program in the Arts - Writing from Barnard College, and a Masters degree in Media Studies from the New School for Social Research (NY, NY). She is a Ph.D. candidate in the Depth Psychology program at Pacifica Graduate Institute (Carpinteria, CA).Johnson has presented her original academic work as Distinguished Guest Speaker at Western Carolina University (November 2009) and as a Humanities Presenter at the 21st Annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities (January 2010). She was a panelist at the Great Writers at Barnard Conference, held at Barnard College in November 2005. Johnson also wrote the welcome address for (then) U.S. Senator Barack Obama, for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences October 2004 diversity summit, Television's Challenges In Black, White... And Multi-Color. She is a contributing writer to African American National Biography (Oxford University Press), edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Evelyn Higginbotham.Johnson is a past Chair (1999-2003) of the Committee of Black Writers of the Writers Guild of America, west, Inc., and a 1999 candidate for the Writers Guild Board of Directors. In September 2000, she was appointed to accept the EPIC (Exemplary Public Interest Contribution) Award from U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman on the Guild's behalf. (The EPIC Award is given to organizations that have been exemplary in their efforts toward diversity and equal opportunity). Johnson was also moderator of the Writers Guild Diversity Symposium panel discussion, Telling ALL Our Stories, in October 1998.As an entertainment journalist, Johnson's cover and feature stories have been published in the Los Angeles Times, Essence, Black Issues Book Review, Emmy®, Written By, The Tidings, The Los Angeles Sentinel, and Barnard magazine. She has been a contributing writer and photographer for The Wave community newspaper's E-Scene entertainment section. Johnson served as Editor of the AACCFE Newsletter for the African American Catholic Center for Evangelization in Los Angeles (2003-2005). She is a certified minister of the word (Lector) through the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and has presented workshops at the Archdiocese's Regional Educational Congresses.She produced and moderated African American Screenwriter-Authors, a panel at the Los Angeles Central Library's Mark Taper Auditorium (May 2003). Johnson has been a moderator, speaker, and guest instructor at venues that include CBS, Paramount Studios, Emerson College - Los Angeles, Columbia College Chicago Semester in L.A., California State University Northridge, Spelman College, Pan African Film Festival, Hollywood Black Film Festival, Acapulco Black Film Festival, and Organization of Black Screenwriters. She has also been an Instructor of Screenwriting at UCLA Extension.Johnson has written publicity and marketing material for Essence Communications Partners, Showtime, CBS, Lifetime, PBS and the Disney Channel.She has been a guest on the Emmy® Award-winning nationally syndicated information program America's Black Forum, and a roundtable participant on NPR's Day to Day. She has appeared on KCET Life and Times Tonight, Telemundo Channel 52 Noticiero Telemundo, and KABC Channel 7 Eyewitness News addressing diversity issues. Show less «