Dr. Stephanie Aisha Steplight Johnson
Vice President for New Trends and Legal Issues
Dr. Stephanie Aisha Steplight Johnson has been a higher education administrator for over 25 years. She has held various levels of positions including the Special Assistant to the Provost at Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh, NC; the Associate Director of the Office of Diversity and Pluralism in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and an Affiliated Faculty member in the African American and African Studies (AAAS) program at Michigan State University; and the Founding Executive Director of the Academic Success Academy and an Assistant Professor of History at South Carolina State University. She has also taught Freshman Studies and African American History at various institutions.
Currently, Dr. Steplight Johnson is the Director of Student Development and Career Services at Essex County College in Newark, NJ where formerly she was the Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the Acting Vice President for Academic Affairs. Due to her vast experience, she has insights about higher education including technology institutions, HBCUs, the Big Ten, Land Grant Institutions, Predominantly Black Institutions, Community Colleges, and public as well as private colleges and universities.
Dr. Steplight Johnson has presented at conferences and workshops, and one of her proudest moments was presenting on “Good Governance” at the United Nations in front of her Mother, Aunt and co-workers who were in the audience.
Dr. Steplight Johnson earned a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in African American Studies from Temple University under the world-renowned Department Chair Dr. Molefi Asante, and earned a Master of Arts in Counseling, Human Services and Guidance from Montclair State University, and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. As a graduate student she received the highly competitive and prestigious Fulbright Dissertation Fellowship for Research which she conducted in Ghana, West Africa (1994-1995) on “Family and Family Planning: Structures, Functions and Pressures from the Perspective of Adolescents of the Adanme Culture in Ghana, West Africa.” Her other travels to Africa include South Africa as a co-chaperone for students at Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh; Ghana as a graduate student at Temple University, and Kenya as a high school student in the American Field Service (AFS) student exchange program. She clearly recognizes the value of education and international experiences.
Some of Dr. Steplight Johnson’s activities include civic engagement, STEM engagement, and empowering girls and women. She was raised in East Orange, New Jersey with her younger brother by two loving parents who instilled in her a love for family, God, community, and education.