Sharon D. Johnston

Dr. Johnson joined the faculty of the School of Social Work in the fall of 1999. She received a B.A. degree in social work from the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, and an M.S.W. and a Ph.D. in social work from Washington University in St. Louis. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in biostatistics and psychiatric epidemiology, and she received a Master of Psychiatric Epidemiology (M.P.E.) degree from Washington University's School of Medicine. 

During her academic pursuits, she received the Chancellor's Graduate Fellowship, NIMH Minority Supplement, and she was an NIMH graduate trainee. Her dissertation research was selected to receive a Social Work Dissertation Award and was presented at the prestigious Social Work Doctoral Research Symposium.

She has worked in the social work field as a case manager for adults with mild mental retardation who were living independently within the community, and she has worked as a sentencing specialist for Missouri’s Public Defender System. She has several publications that focus on the mental health and social functioning of African Americans, adolescents, and urban samples. Dr. Johnson’s current research focuses on adolescents of substance-using mothers and the role of their biological fathers.