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Lavera Malone was born and grew up in, St. Louis, Missouri. After graduating salutatorian from Vashon High School in St. Louis, she graduated Cum Laude from Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Mo. with a degree in Secondary Education. For one semester she attended the University of Wisconsin as a Danforth fellow in Comparative Literature before leaving to marry her late husband, Arthur C. Johnson, a fellow student at Northwest Mo. State. Mrs. Johnson and her husband moved to Queens, New York, where she attended New York University and continued her graduate studies in French Language and literature. She worked in various teaching jobs in New York City before starting her career in Human Resources in the early 70’s. After ten years as a successful professional in this field, she began and completed a Master’s Degree in Human Resources from the New School for Social Research in NYC. Her degree concentration was in Organizational Development. Mrs. Johnson has worked in health care (The Brooklyn Hospital), insurance (Amalgamated Life Insurance Co.), children’s education and entertainment (Children’s Television Workshop) and manufacturing (Buffalo based Advanced Refractory Technologies and NanoDynamics) in ever increasing roles of responsibility in Human Resources for more than 25 years. All of her work experience in HR has been in New York State. Mrs. Johnson describes herself as a social activist and in recent years has become involved as a board member with several educational and human services organizations. These include: Nichols School, Sheehan Memorial Hospital, the Workforce Investment Board of Buffalo and Erie County, and Leadership Buffalo. She is also a national member of the Society for Human Resources Professionals (SHRM). Mrs. Johnson is currently employed as Human Resources Director for NanoDynamics, an advanced materials, manufacturing company, located in South Buffalo. She lives in Tonawanda, New York, with her two sons, Scott and Stephen-Alan. | 