Demetria Johnson, MBA, SHRM-SCP
Guest Speaker
TEF
Mt. Gilead FGIM
As a child, Demetria Johnson recalls standing up for the rights of others and observing the needs that women of all ages faced in taking care of their families and themselves. She admired how her mother demonstrated a work ethic and confidence to keep advancing in her career despite challenges she faced. These values, and her relationship with God led to her journey of helping women to search and acquire jobs aligned with their goals and visions. Out of her aspirations she started to gain the education and experience that would open doors for her to begin a career in human resources and workforce development.
During her 12 years of experience working in various HR roles she has served as aTalent Acquisition Manager, HR Generalist, HR Coordinator and Performance Improvement professional in State government and the private sector. She holds a Master of Business Administration Degree, a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communications, and a Senior Certified Professional HR Certification from the Society for Human Resource Management.
Some of her accomplishments throughout her career, include receiving recognition for her work in building effective and cohesive teams, serving as the project lead for a talent acquisition program for the VCU Health System aligned with the new employee customer service culture initiative developed by the Disney Institute. She has been a speaker for the Commonwealth of Virginia Inaugural Agency webinar series for the advancements in HR systems. She drew an award from the Agency Director of the Department of Medical Assistance Services for her work as the HR project lead to develop and implement an innovative HR technological system that mitigated risks in team operations, reduced productivity time needed to complete daily tasks and positioned the agency as an “Employer of Choice.”
As an HR professional, she has made impactful contributions to the productivity of women by fostering a work environment that is inclusive, equitable, and an overall space for open communication, work life balance and career development. She coaches, trains, incorporates job expansion projects in a performance plan for women to give them opportunities to develop leadership and core job related skills. She has enhanced the employee engagement and motivation of several employees particularly women in the workplace.
Her work in positive employee relations to improve retention has been acknowledged by leaders throughout her career.
In the community she serves as a coach to provide counseling to women seeking guidance in navigating through a competitive job market. She enjoys helping them to think outside of the box to identify skills, abilities and talents they can leverage into a dream job or career path.
On a personal note, Demetria is the proud mother of two grown sons to whom her husband and she raised and taught to PGF to (Put God First) to be successful in life. She feels privileged to be the caregiver of her father who she says instilled in her the value of teaching others as he is a retired school teacher from Richmond Public Schools.
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