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As a high school senior from Memphis, Tennessee, Betty Dandridge Johnson ’79 wasn’t sure what she wanted to study in college.
With two older siblings (and eventually a younger one) who worked as teachers, she was interested in education. But she also wanted to travel beyond her native Tennessee for school. A high school counselor suggested Grinnell College, where a liberal arts focus would allow her to do nearly anything.
When Dandridge Johnson was assigned to a tutorial led by the late Roberta Atwell, professor of education, her long career in education was born. And although Dandridge Johnson retired in July 2022 as chief academic officer, Tennessee Higher Education Commission – the highest level in academic affairs in that state – she has served as an academic affairs consultant at the University of Tennessee System, Office of Academic Affairs, Research, and Student Success since January 2023.
In this role, Dandridge Johnson looks at new academic programs, productivity, enrollment, graduation rates, accreditation, and financial projections on five state campuses, among other issues.
“If someone had told me at the beginning of my career that I would have had that leadership responsibility and worked with college provosts and leaders throughout the state on student success and programs, I would have been amazed,” says Dandridge Johnson, in her soft Tennessee accent.
Her sisters had attended Historically Black Colleges and Universities closer to home, but Betty wanted to spread her wings a bit. She arrived on Grinnell’s campus, sight unseen with her father, in August 1975. “He was going to drop me off and fly back,” says Dandridge Johnson, but culture shock and homesickness hit her hard.
“Someone’s kindness can really make a difference”
“I was crying, and my father couldn’t leave me,” she says. And then a Grinnell professor stepped in and changed everything.
Charles Davis, chairman of the Black Studies Program, instructor of English and Black Studies, and one of three Black professors on campus at the time, spotted Johnson and her dad and ended up inviting them to spend the night at his home. He reassured Dandridge Johnson that everything would be OK. The next day her father left after she told him: “OK daddy, I think I can do it.”
“That was big. Someone’s kindness can really make a difference,” recalls Dandridge Johnson. She soon settled into a routine. “It took a few weeks, but I was so glad I persevered.”
She thrived in her tutorial, and became involved with Concerned Black Students, and the Young, Gifted, and Black Gospel Choir. She eventually focused on a psychology major, spent her junior year at Howard University, then returned to Grinnell and completed an internship her fourth year at Drake University, researching the impact of compliments and how people perceive them.
She continued to hone her statistics and research talents after graduation, returning to Tennessee to earn a master’s degree in psychology at Vanderbilt. As a graduate student, she was hired on a Ford Foundation Grant by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, where she studied student success. By age 25, she was working there full-time.
Dandridge Johnson moved on to a job at the Tennessee Board of Regents, first as a research analyst and then as the director of institutional effectiveness, before moving to Middle Tennessee State University as executive director of institutional effectiveness, planning and research. She returned to the Tennessee Higher Education Commission – where her career started – and stayed for two decades, spending her last 10 years as chief academic officer.
Today, in addition to her consulting work, Dandridge Johnson volunteers with her church, Schrader Lane Church of Christ, as a volunteer project coordinator, working on various projects from ministries and operating procedures to organizing photos and documents in the church Archives Center.
She’s also been involved with the College. Johnson’s most memorable Grinnell project was co-leading, with Joyce Franklin Freshwater ’79, the first African American Alumni Reunion in 1997. For the reunion, Dandridge Johnson sent a survey to all African American alumni and based on this information, prepared a directory listing alumni by their class, from 1937 (Mrs. Edith Renfrow Smith) to students graduating in 1998.
Nearly 30 years later, Grinnell is preparing to host a Black Alumni Weekend reunion Oct. 3-5. Registration for the weekend is now open.
Dandridge Johnson also represented the College at the presidential inauguration at Fisk University in Nashville.
“I found my niche and it was higher education,” says Dandridge Johnson, who still talks to cashiers at her local grocery store about school and the opportunities for them. “I experienced so many types of campuses – Grinnell, Howard, Drake, Vanderbilt, and realized that higher education was my thing.”
Contributing Writer
Dandridge Johnson is among the more than 650 Black women who have followed in Renfrow Smith’s footsteps at Grinnell College. Read about a few of the other Black alumnae in a Grinnell Magazine article published in fall 2024 following the dedication of Renfrow Hall.
To read more alumni news, check out our news archive and like the Alumni & Friends Facebook page.
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