Joyce Johnson, Co-Founder and Secretary and Treasurer

Since 2004, Joyce has been involved in research, training, and public health implementation of a large HIV/AIDS program in Nigeria through the University of Maryland. She has worked intimately with a team of highly skilled professionals to implement the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in Nigeria. Her involvement in the planning and implementation of the care and treatment of tens of thousands of HIV/AIDS patients in Nigeria led her to partnering with Diane Blattner to establish a charitable foundation — Hope for West Africa Foundation, Inc. — to fill in the gaps of large-scale government grant programs for those infected with HIV/AIDS and their families.

Hope for West Africa Foundation captures the essence of a charitable organization by partnering with African nonprofit organizations (partners) to deliver programs that are not available through government-funded sources: educating the children who are orphaned because of HIV/AIDS; building dining halls; teaching sex workers marketable skills such as computer use and sewing; buying cars so that meals can be delivered to leper colonies; paying legal fees for women to keep their children and assets after the husband dies; and so forth. Helping one person at a time through the Foundations Partners in West Africa (Faith Alive, Poorest of the Poor, and Mothers Welfare Group) or impacting the partners programs on a larger scale through renovating buildings, purchasing capital equipment, and employing trained healthcare professionals is the reason for Joyce’s strong commitment to Hope for West Africa Foundation.

Joyce is married to Mark Johnson, a Senior Director for Medtronic, and is a mother of two university students, Christy and Danny. Joyce has traveled to West Africa more than a dozen times and her children have accompanied her on a number of occasions. She visits the partners regularly in her travel.