Associate Superintendent

Dr. Li-Yen K. Johnson was born in Taiwan, Republic of China.  She came to United States in 1975 to pursue a master’s degree in Special Education from Indiana University.

After completing her degree, Dr. Johnson began her teaching career at Arsenal Technical High School in 1976.

Dr. Johnson enjoyed her teaching career at the elementary, middle, and high schools for eleven years in the Indianapolis Public Schools.  Her administrative career began when she became an administrative intern at Carl Wilde Elementary School in 1989.

In the subsequent eleven years, Dr. Johnson’s leadership at William Bell Elementary School 60 and Eleanor Skillen Elementary School 34 brought about not only improvement in academic achievement of all students but also generated the “can do” climate that permeated the community and schools.

She was the first principal in the Indianapolis Public Schools who was trained by the School Development Project at Yale University in 1992.  Four more schools became successful School Development Project Schools due to her vision and leadership.  School Development Project brought about a new belief system that all children can achieve if we choose to address the developmental pathways intentionally by including parents and community as our active partners.

In 1998, Superintendent Pritchett created five regions in the Indianapolis Public Schools based on the high school feeder patterns.  Dr. Johnson was appointed the regional director of the Arsenal Technical High School region.  Her instructional leadership promoted consistent academic improvement in the seventeen schools within the region.  The US Department of Education gave the Blue Ribbon Award to one of her schools, Charity Dye Elementary School 27 for the 2003-2004 school year.  The following year, Florence Fay Elementary School 21 achieved four-star status in the State of Indiana.

Dr. White recently appointed Dr. Johnson to the position of Associate Superintendent.  She previously worked for Dr. White as the Assistant Superintendent of the Elementary Division working with four elementary directors providing support for the fifty-eight elementary schools in the district.

Dr. Johnson has one daughter who resides in California.  Her family still lives in Taiwan.