Callie Johnson

Director of Communications & Community Engagement

Dr. Callie Johnson is an A woman of medium dark skin tone with straight black hair in a pearl necklace, black blazer, and white shirtaward-winning marketing, communications, and nonprofit leadership executive. Bringing more than fifteen years of experience working in the Western New York cultural landscape, Johnson joined the Buffalo AKG Art Museum in summer 2021 as the museum’s first Director of Communications & Community Engagement—a new department that plays a key role in shaping the museum’s identity locally, nationally, and globally.

At the Buffalo AKG, Johnson serves in an executive role as a member of the Leadership Team. Working in close collaboration with all departments, she leads the museum’s regional, national, and international communications and community-engagement efforts with the objective of connecting people from all walks of life with the matrix of extraordinary arts and cultural experiences the museum offers through its programs and world-renowned collection of modern and contemporary art. At present, she is also stewarding the rebranding of the museum, a transformation resulting from a multimillion-dollar campus development and expansion project that will culminate in the museum’s spring 2023 opening.

Johnson is the former Executive Vice President of Marketing for Girl Scouts of Western New York and a former member of the Forbes Communications Council. She is a graduate of Niagara University, where she earned her PhD in Leadership and Policy (2018). She received her MS in Global Business and Marketing from Daemen College (2010), and her MA in Communication, with a minor in Sociology, from the University at Buffalo (2007). Johnson has received numerous awards and recognitions during her career, including two Buffalo Business First awards—40 Under 40 (2019) and 30 Under 30 (2013)—for making a difference both on the job and in the community; a Buffalo Niagara 360 Spotlight Professional recognition (2014) for her career success and her commitment to strengthening the Buffalo Niagara region; and three Girl Scouts of Western New York Finance Certificates of Accomplishment—Budget (2021, 2020, and 2019) and a Commitment to Excellence Award—Marketing Subject Matter Expert (2018).