Commissioner Johnson has been invited to testify before Congress more often and on more issues than any elected county official in history. He is considered an international authority on environmental issues. With his leadership, Hennepin County established a comprehensive recycling and integrated solid waste management program that is consistently cited as one of the best in the world. Commissioner Johnson has addressed conferences at the United Nations and abroad on such issues as alternative fuels, climate change, waste management and new technologies.

Commissioner Johnson has demonstrated his dedication to serving the public through leadership and participation in numerous organizations and committees, including: President, National Association of Counties (NACo); member, Board of Directors of Public Technology, Inc. (PTI); chair, Environmental Task Force of PTI’s Urban Consortium; co-founder, Great North Alliance; member, Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco (MPAAT) Board of Directors; co-chair, Governor’s Bi-Partisan Blue-Ribbon Commission on Welfare Reform; officer, Metropolitan Mosquito Control District; member, Metropolitan 911 Board; member, Metropolitan Solid Waste Management Coordinating Board; member, Metropolitan 800 Megahertz Radio Board; and member, Metro GIS Policy Committee and Health Futures Institute.

Currently, Commissioner Johnson is on the Board of Directors of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the United Way. He also serves on the Policy Group on Strategic Computing as well as the Executive Session on Public Sector Performance Management at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

In Washington, D.C., Commissioner Johnson serves on the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC); HUD's Community Builders' Advisory Board; the Urban Institute‘s Assessing the New Federalism Advisory Committee; and the National Council for Science and the Environment.

Prior to his election, Commissioner Johnson was Assistant General Counsel at the Federal Election Commission in Washington, D.C.; an associate with the Minneapolis law firm Faegre and Benson; legal assistant at the National Coal Board in London, England; and Legislative Assistant to Minnesota’s first Commissioner of Human Rghts.

Commissioner Johnson received his J.D. cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1974 where he was a member of the Law Review. He earned a B.A. in political science, with distinction, from Macalester College in St. Paul.