Rebecca Johnson

Rebecca Johnson holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. She practiced as a clinical psychologist in Maryland until 1989, when she was promoted to full-time parenthood. Later, she became the primary facilitator of her two sons’ homeschool education. Rebecca assumed a leadership role in her regional homeschool community and was also involved in local government and grassroots community issues. Rebecca accompanied her husband, Bill Destler, to Rochester when he became president of the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2007.
 
Her earliest work in Rochester involved supporting and networking the RIT environmental community. She sits on RIT’s campus-wide Committee for Sustainability, and she co-chaired the campus’s Climate Change Teach-In in Feb., 2009. She hosts weekly drop-in lunches for faculty, staff, and students interested in environmental issues, and she founded the greenRITnetwork (gRITnetwork), an email list that facilitates communication among members of RIT’s environmental community. Rebecca was a member of the Leadership Rochester class of 2009. Rebecca looks forward to broadening her environmental focus as part of the Gandhi Institute Board of Directors. She also looks forward to pursuing with the Gandhi Institute her interests in urban education, nonviolent conflict resolution, and the link between spirituality and social justice.