Mitzi Johnson is Senior Leadership Faculty and Coach at KS Insight and brings 25 years of experience as a leader, leadership coach, and trainer. Mitzi is the former Speaker of the House and Chair of the House Appropriations Committee in the Vermont Legislature and was an elected State Representative for 18 years.  She is recognized for establishing collaborative working relationships across diverse stakeholder groups and creating a transparent and inclusive process.

Mitzi brings to her leadership training practice decades of lived examples of leading through crises and conflicts, building and strengthening organizations, and creating cultural change – with their successes and struggles. Mitzi is also a member of the inaugural design team for the Women Igniting Leadership Lab program at KS Insight.

To stay engaged in supporting both leadership in elected office as well as our institutions of democracy, Mitzi directed the Beacons of Democracy project at the State Legislative Leadership Foundation and and regularly delivers leadership trainings for bi-partisan groups of legislative leaders, municipal government officials and people seeking elected office. In addition, she teaches public budgeting and management to MPPA degree students.

Volunteering in community is a core value for Mitzi. Currently she is the Chair of the Board for Vermont Foodbank (8 years), a board member for the South Hero Land Trust (12 years), and serves on her county Democrats committee (25 years). Previously she was the Executive Director and then board member of the Adaptive Leadership Network, a nonprofit engaged in leadership training and complex problem solving (9 years), she volunteered as an EMT with South Hero Rescue (20 years), was a board member with her regional Visiting Nurses Association (9 years), and on University of Vermont’s College of Agriculture and Life Science Advisory Board (6 years).

Mitzi earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Vermont and a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School where she was a member of Ron Heifetz’ teaching team for Adaptive Leadership, and she received coaching training from Kansas Leadership Center and Coaches Rising. She lives on an island in Lake Champlain in a home she designed and built largely herself.