Montgomery Serves Awards 2021
Roscoe R. Nix Distinguished Community Service Award
Honoring extraordinary contributions to the quality of our community
Byron A. Johns
Byron A. Johns has been a leading advocate for educational equity for over 10 years, and currently serves as the Education Chair for the Montgomery County branch of the NAACP. Since moving to Montgomery County, he has also served as the NAACP Parents’ Council Chair and is co-founder of the Black and Brown Coalition for Educational Equity and Excellence. At the state level, he worked to form the Maryland Coalition to Reform School Discipline in collaboration with the ACLU, Open Society Institute, Advocates for Children & Youth, Maryland Disability Law Center, and Office of the Public Defender. This resulted in the passage of several bills improving the welfare of Maryland’s children, banning the suspension of young learners and reducing the disparity in discipline for student of color. In 2019 Mr. Johns was honored by the Montgomery County Board of Education with the Distinguished Service to Public Education award. During the Covid-19 pandemic while schools were virtual, he led efforts working with the Children’s Opportunity Fund, Montgomery County Public Schools, private childcare providers, and public/private funders to raise nine million dollars to serve 1500 students with Educational Equity Hubs — safe, supervised, technology enabled in-person learning facilities that support low-income students for whom virtual learning was ineffective.
Mr. Johns has been a technology leader in the telecommunications and information systems industry for over forty years, and currently is Vice President for a private firm supporting Federal government agencies. He previously held executive positions at Capital One Financial Corporation, responsible for Information Technology; Convergys Corporation, responsible for International operations in Australia and Latin America; and with AT&T Bell Laboratories, responsible for research and development of cellular wireless technologies.
Mr. Johns graduated from the Morehouse College and Georgia Tech with Bachelor of Science degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering and received his Master of Science degree in Computer and Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He also is a graduate of the Yale University Executive Management Program. He has published in the IEEE Mobile Communications Industry journal and is a member of the World Affairs Council. He is a past member of the Board of Trustees for Mount Saint Joseph College and the University of Cincinnati’s Foundation Board of Trustees.
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