EdD, 2017 Dr. Torie A. Johnson has been involved in higher education for more than 20 years, working first in intercollegiate athletics and now as associate vice president for strategic communications and initiatives at Baylor University. She joined Baylor's Marketing and Communications Division in December 2022, and she leads proactive strategies that elevate Baylor's status as a preeminent Christian research university. She coordinates efforts with many of Baylor's partner universities, organizations and constituents while overseeing several University-wide brand, media, and public relation initiatives. Johnson, a Baylor graduate herself, supervises the media and public relations department and interfaces with Baylor's Board of Regents and institutional leadership. Before returning to Baylor, Johnson served as the first Associate Commissioner for Academic Relations at the Southeastern Conference (SEC) for four years after working for seven years as executive director of SECU - The Academic Initiative of the SEC. Incorporated as the SEC Academic Consortium in 2005 and reorganized under the auspices of the SEC in 2011, SECU was in 2018 renamed academic relations with Johnson remaining at the helm. The goal of this unique effort in college sports is to promote the academic achievements of SEC universities. And as the senior administrator Johnson led cooperative initiatives for the SEC's member universities, as mandated by the league's Presidents and Chancellors and in consult with the SEC Provosts. She also managed all office operations and served on the senior leadership team where she focused primarily on academic messaging and programming. Nationally, Johnson served on the NCAA Research Committee from 2019-2022. Before her appointment to SECU, Johnson spent four and a half years as Assistant Director of SEC Championships. She worked primarily with track and field and women's tennis, while providing support for men's and women's basketball, football, women's gymnastics and women's soccer. She was liaison to the student-athlete advisor and administrative awards committees. And she coordinated the SEC postgraduate scholarship program, which awarded more then $300,000 in aid annually, and was facilitated by the league's faculty athletics representatives. During a three-year stint as director of the National Letter of Intent Program, the Texas native served as national administrator for the program used to confirm a high school athlete's intent to enroll in an NCAA institution and participate in athletics. She was responsible for rules interpretations, addressing media inquiries and providing oversight for the NLI appeals process. Prior to joining the SEC, Johnson spent nearly two years as director of media relation for the Southland Conference, where she coordinated publicity and promotions for all women's sports and was editor of The Southland Journal, the conference's official newsletter. She has held internships with the Houston Astros Baseball Club, and the Florida Today and Waco-Tribune Herald newspapers. Johnson was editor in chief of Baylor's student newspaper and spent most of her four years on the staff in the sports department. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from Baylor, a Master of Arts degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and a Doctor of Education degree in Higher Education from the University of Georgia, where her dissertation focused on institutional leadership of intercollegiate athletics. She is graduate of the NCAA Leadership Institute for Ethnic Minority Females, and she completed Multicultural Mentoring and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace certificates in 2021.
