Precious Johnson
Precious Johnson is an accomplished grants and fundraising professional with expertise in securing support from foundations, corporations, and government entities. Prior to joining the City of Detroit's Office of Development and Grants led by Julianna Smoot, she served as a Grants Officer at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), where she raised funds for operations, exhibitions, capital projects, and a range of Asian arts and educational programs.
Her previous experience includes research and compliance roles at nationally recognized organizations such as Georgetown University Medical Center, the National Opinion Research Center (NORC), Friends of the Children, and the Erikson Institute under the supervision of Professor Emerita Aisha Ray, PhD, and late co-founder and educator Barbara Bowman. In these roles, she excelled at coordinating agile, cross-departmental efforts to enhance the safety and well-being of families, youth, patients, and vulnerable state wards. Precious strives to foster partnerships that create meaningful, long-term investments in education, arts and culture, environmental initiatives, and neighborhood development. Her work is focused on improving the quality of life, infrastructure, and services in underinvested communities while expanding our capacity for understanding and diversity.
Since relocating to Detroit, Precious has pursued her passion for environmental and spatial justice by establishing and managing a community orchard, applying knowledge from several training programs, including the Michigan Conservation Stewardship Program, Urban Roots Community Garden Leadership Program, and an advanced training certificate in ecopsychology. A proud alumna of the James Kanada Fellowship with Strategic Community Partners, she serves as chair of fund development for the Michigan Alliance for Environmental and Outdoor Education (MAEOE) and on the board of the Black to the Land Coalition. Additionally, she shares her enthusiasm for arts and culture through service on the board of Sadza Space, and as an advisory board member of Essay’d, a platform that advances journalism, advocacy and research focused on Detroit’s arts and culture ecosystem.