This is the 76th article in Bears Doing Big Things, a weekly column celebrating the stories of notable M-A alumni.
“I’ve always wanted to make sure things were just. That was my North Star since high school,” Zakiya Carr Johnson ‘92 said.
Carr Johnson, the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the U.S. Department of State, returned to M-A to discuss her career and the importance of diversity in policy-making on Friday, Sept. 27. Her AP Literature teacher, Shannon Griscom, was in attendance. “They were trailblazers,” Griscom told the audience about Carr Johnson and her fellow Black female students. “They had to be strong internally because they faced a lot from other students.”
Growing up, Carr Johnson watched PBS educational programs on people and animals. “I was fascinated by documentaries,” she said. “I felt that more people learned when there was an audio and video package than with a book. When something was between two covers, it seemed to escape people.”
After graduating from middle school in East Palo Alto, Carr Johnson was enrolled at Carlmont as a part of a desegregation busing program. Her parents petitioned, however, and she attended M-A for all four years of high school.
She sought to become a filmmaker and interned at Stanford University’s radio station in high school. “I wanted to tell stories that people had not heard before. I wanted people to learn about communities and experiences that were not part of mainstream discourse,” she said.
At M-A, Carr Johnson was involved in debate, theater, the Black Student Union, and MESA (math, engineering, science, achievement), an academic enrichment program for under-represented students.
The summer after her sophomore year, Carr Johnson fundraised to go to Yenne, Senegal with an organization called Sisters of Tomorrow. They received a key to the city in a people-to-people exchange. “We sung a song and read a proclamation in a ceremony, and there was a football field full of dance troops, elders, and young people there,” she said.
“I didn’t know you could be an ambassador, but I basically was,” she said. “I remember someone asked us about the TV show Dynasty and I realized that through person-to-person experiences, I could change impressions about who a group of people are. I saw how big the world is outside of where I lived.”
In Griscom’s class, Carr Johnson said, “We would ask her why we were reading the books we did and what made them ‘classics.’ None of our experiences sounded like the stories we read. We wanted to read authors like Toni Morrison, and she added them into our classes. She always set a high bar of expectations and never dumbed things down.”
“I remember my government teacher telling my class, ‘You are the future leaders of this country.’ I looked around and I was the only Black woman in the room. There was nobody from my city and no one who looked like me. But, we do become leaders,” she reflected.
Carr Johnson also learned Spanish at M-A. “My teachers taught me to not be afraid to speak in another language, even if you make mistakes,” she said. “Without them, I wouldn’t have focused on language or had my career.”
I remember my government teacher telling my class, ‘You are the future leaders of this country.’ I looked around and I was the only Black woman in the room. There was nobody from my city and no one who looked like me. But, we do become leaders.
Zakiya Carr Johnson
Carr Johnson toured historically Black colleges and universities in Georgia, Alabama, and Washington, D.C. with a local Boys & Girls Club. “I was amazed with the culture at these schools, and not just what people would think about students at HBCUs. There was a culture of education and excellence,” she said.
When visiting Spelman College in Atlanta, Ga., she recalled, “The provost sat down with us and asked, ‘How are you going to change the world?’ That gave me a greater sense of purpose than just going to school.”
After graduating from M-A, Carr Johnson attended Howard University in Washington, where she majored in communications with a focus in radio television and film.
Carr Johnson had a job during college copy editing scripts and came across one with hateful language towards Indigenous peoples. She expressed her dissatisfaction, but was told that doing so was not part of her position.
“As a young person, I learned your time will come and I moved on to a different place. I don’t think you have to sit and watch things happen that are not right. We owe it to ourselves and society,” she said.
At Howard, she attended a talk about human rights, racial discrimination, and intersectionality at a delegation of Afro–Latin American leaders. “It kind of blew my mind,” she said. “I saw dialogue between countries about issues that matter and people who were trying to find solutions.”
Carr Johnson continued to study Spanish at Howard and also learned Portuguese. “I became trilingual because I wanted to hear and be heard. When you speak someone’s language, it resonates with them, and you see each other,” she said.
Carr Johnson began working to promote social inclusion across the Americas. She lived in São Paulo, Brazil for three years working for the Geledés Black Women’s Institute advocating for the human rights of Afro-Brazilian women.
She then returned to the U.S. and worked for the Inter-American Foundation, supporting businesses in Venezuela and Ecuador, where she raised around $3.6 million annually. Later, members of Congress and the State Department asked if she would be interested in creating a new bureau focusing on historically marginalized groups.
Carr Johnson created and directed the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs’ Race, Ethnicity, and Social Inclusion Unit. “We can think differently about how policy is made when we combine a bird’s-eye view with a grassroots one,” she said.
She founded ODARA Solutions, a consulting firm investing in historically marginalized communities across the Americas. She also co-founded Black Women Disrupt, which supports and uplifts Black women’s work.
Carr Johnson returned to the State Department in April 2024 as Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer. “Diversity and inclusion help a space be more human and allows us to feel like we belong,” she said.
Diversity and inclusion help a space be more human and allows us to feel like we belong.
Zakiya Carr Johnson
Since the State Department is a spokesperson for America abroad, it’s important to represent all of the people that are a part of America, Carr Johnson explained. “We have to consider who is not at the table when we are making policy decisions on big and mundane things. When we don’t have a lot of opinions making decisions, we run the risk of things having a bigger impact on people than we would like,” she said.
Carr Johnson’s advice to current students: “Do what you love. Life is long, but you also don’t have a lot of time. Do what inspires and drives you and it will never feel like work.”
For students interested in diversity and inclusion: “Read a whole lot. Read history, politics, economy. Study news and news trends. Read a lot of sources. Spend time with your thoughts about what you are reading. A lot of work we do is about recommendations made to people who make policies. Whether it’s advising members of Congress, the president, or the United Nations, it’s important to be able to read, digest information, and consolidate it for other people.”
