Lindsey Johnson
Lindsey Johnson is a cofounder of PermittingPartners. With more than two decades of experience in community economic development, coalition building, and grassroots and grasstops outreach, Johnson helps clients navigate the people side of the permitting process from start to finish. For almost two years, Johnson led a team of consultants for Independent System Operator – New England, the government-chartered manager of the region’s electrical grid. Johnson’s team focused solely on educating large energy consumers and communities committed to economic development on the need for increasing generation and improving transmission infrastructure.
She has assisted clients with identifying sites for operations, understanding the concerns of the surrounding community and how to engage key influencers, and developing innovative solutions that garner community buy-in. Johnson also counsels clients on how to work effectively with local and state governments – as well as community leaders – to successfully facilitate the process.
Johnson has applied her economic development expertise to assist women entrepreneurs across the country. In 1994, she and Judith Luther Wilder launched Women Incorporated (WI), a non-profit organization founded to improve the business climate for female entrepreneurs through advocacy, education, access to credit, and aggregating the market power of the large number of women entrepreneurs.
Johnson also served as the national director of the Office of Women’s Business Ownership at the U.S. Small Business Administration, where she designed a public policy framework that would create economic development to support and promote women entrepreneurs. In addition, with Jackie Joyner Kersee, Johnson co-authored, A Women’s Place Is Everywhere, a book on women role models that was published in 1994.
Early in her career, Johnson was the director of legislative affairs for the Washington, D.C.-based law firm, Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand, where she specialized in energy, employee benefit and health care issues, international trade, contracting and transportation issues. She also has served as campaign manager for several congressional campaigns, worked on a number of state and local races and served as a national coalition director for the 1988 Presidential Campaign for Bush/Quayle. She also has worked at the U.S. Departments of Commerce and State.
Johnson currently serves as a director of a number of nonprofit organizations, including Sias International University Foundation, the Rutland County Parent Child Center and the Association of Women’s Business Centers. In addition, she serves as a board member and advisor to a number of entrepreneurs across the country.
Johnson received her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and an A.B. in International Relations from the University of Chicago.