Rise to the Challenge

Marlene M. Johnson was Minnesota’ s first woman lieutenant governor, serving in Governor Rudy Perpich’ s administration from 1983 until 1991. She is cofounder of the Minnesota Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners and the Minnesota Women’ s Campaign Fund and was executive director and CEO of NAFSA: Association of International Educators for nearly two decades. She is now on the advisory board of Kakenya’ s Dream, a board member of the Washington Office on Latin America, and a trustee of The Alexandria Trust. In 1988, she was awarded the Royal Order of the Polar Star by the Kingdom of Sweden. She lives in Washington, D. C.