Michele Johnson: Working for a State Where We Can All Thrive

Bio: Michele Johnson is co-founder and Executive Director at the Tennessee Justice Center.  The focus of her nationally-recognized legal work has been children with special health care needs. In that role, she lobbied successfully to extend health care coverage to uninsured children in working families and participated in a landmark case establishing appeal rights for TennCare patients who are denied care by their HMO. As lead counsel, she negotiated a class action settlement requiring comprehensive reform of health care for 665,000 Tennessee children enrolled in TennCare.

Michele is the winner of the 1999 Child Advocacy Award of the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division. She is a frequent speaker at regional and national conferences on topics as varied as due process, children’s health care metrics, faith and social justice work, effective social media and fundraising. She has been relied upon as a commentator on health law by both local and national media.  In 2015, the Tennessee Bar Association named her Public Interest Attorney of the Year.  Nashville Medical News named Michele a “Woman to Watch” and is featured in their InCharge HealthCare Middle Tennessee. The Nashville Business Journal named Michele a “Health Care Hero” and “Best of the Bar.” In 2016, The Tennessean named her a finalist for the “Tennessean of the Year.”