Lisa Johnson holds a doctorate from City University of New York, where she specialized in woodwind performance and musical analysis for performers. Long active as a free-lance and Broadway orchestra performer in the metropolitan NYC area, she was most recently Music Program Director and a Senior Program Officer at the New York State Council on the Arts. Previously, Dr. Johnson was Associate Dean of the Mannes College of Music, a division of New School University, and was also a tenured Associate Professor at Clarion University in Pennsylvania, teaching clarinet, saxophone, jazz, and music business.