Professor Janice Johnson Dias Appointed to NJ Gubernatorial Transition Team
Professor Janice Johnson Dias has been appointed to the New Jersey Governor’s Transition Interdisciplinary Advisory Task Force, an advisory group that will play a key role in shaping the policy priorities of the incoming Sherrill–Caldwell Administration. Members of the Task Force will provide guidance and feedback to Transition Action Teams and transition staff as the administration sets its governing agenda.
Professor Johnson Dias is a sociologist, scholar-activist and public intellectual who develops innovative, community-centered solutions to the challenges facing families living in poverty—particularly Black mothers and their children. Her work sits at the intersection of sociology, public health, public administration and social work and focuses on identifying, developing and rigorously testing community-based approaches that improve health, safety and life outcomes for women and girls.
She is the author of Parent Like It Matters: How To Raise Joyful Change-Making Girls, a book that draws on sociology and lived experience to examine how structural inequality shapes parenting and to offer tools for raising children with intention, dignity and justice in unequal social systems.
Professor Johnson Dias is the founder and president of the GrassROOTS Community Foundation (GCF), a public health and social action organization that works nationally and globally to support, develop, and scale community-driven solutions to the health challenges facing women and girls. GCF’s work has been supported by The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Barnabas Health System, Procter & Gamble, The Health Care Foundation of New Jersey and GlaxoSmithKline, among others.
Previously, Professor Johnson Dias served on New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy’s transition committee and co-chaired the public health transition team for Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka. She has worked closely with the City of Plainfield on youth engagement initiatives and with the City of Philadelphia on public health efforts in the Germantown neighborhood. She is also a nationally recognized public speaker and was named by Forbes as one of the leading voices in “What’s the Next Trend in Leadership? Black Women.”
A former U.S. Army Reservist, Professor Johnson Dias has been honored as a Woman of the Year by Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., and recognized by the University of Michigan for community service, the Carma Foundation for community activism, and the City of West Orange, New Jersey, with the Freedom Award.
Her justice-focused research and community work have been highlighted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and CBS News. She is also the mother of Marley Dias, founder of the #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign, which has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Teen Vogue, Forbes, The New York Times and on CNN. Find more information about Johnson Dias here.
