Johnston is a Massachusetts-based feminist public health and research professional. She approaches her work with a progressive, social justice-based lens, and she specializes in gender equity and sexual and reproductive health issues.
Currently, Katie works as the Program Associate for the Boston Women’s Workforce Council, a public-private partnership between the City of Boston under Mayor Martin J. Walsh's Administration, the School of Management at Simmons College, and the businesses of the Greater Boston Area. The Council’s goal is to eliminate the wage gap, remove the visible and invisible barriers to women’s advancement, and ensure that 100% of the talent pool is used to make Boston the best city in the country for working women. Katie was brought on to manage the organization’s development and communications, and she acts as a liaison with businesses and the Council’s data partners to assist program evaluation.
Prior to joining the team at the Council, Katie was the Health Policy Fellow for the Massachusetts Caucus of Women Legislators, where she supported Caucus expansion by representing the Caucus at legislative events, creating and distributing fact sheets, and tracking legislation for advocates, stakeholders, and constituents. She researched and wrote the Caucus’ first white paper and is proud to have been a part of this development milestone.
Additionally, with a background in clinical and social science research, Katie completed a year-long intensive internship at Ibis Reproductive Health. There, Katie supported qualitative research in long-term international and domestic reproductive health studies and contributed to the development, design, and launch of the GirlsWithNerve.com website. Katie recently became a member of the GAIN Access Research Committee for NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts and contributes to study design and analysis of data concerning women’s access to reproductive healthcare.
Katie’s passion lies in advocating for victims of gender violence. She worked for two years performing crisis management for victims experiencing intimate partner violence for Turning Point of the Lehigh Valley. During her undergraduate years, Katie was a member of Lehigh University’s gender violence prevention program, Break the Silence, and studied men’s involvement in campus anti-sexual violence activism, presenting her findings regionally and nationally. In 2012, Katie received both the 2012 Patti T. Ota Women’s Studies Award and the Vagina Warrior Award from the 2012 Vagina Monologues from Lehigh University.
Katie received her M.P.H. in Maternal and Child Health from Boston University in 2014 and a B.A. in Women’s Studies and Biology from Lehigh University in 2012.