April Johnson

I currently work for Pepsico as an Engineering and Maintenance manager, currently serving on a multi-year global template project. I am the only person in my position across the division of 58 plants that does not have a baccalaureate. I work in a heavily male dominated industry. As a non-college graduate, African American, single mother I stand out in the crowd. I am two salary grade promotion levels from being a director, and I know that not having a degree is holding me back from that. I want to be able to continue to progress my career and I chose Organizational Leadership as the path to do that. The maintenance an engineering functions within manufacturing organizations lack strong and clear leadership development. Outside of my normal job, I have served on industry panels and trade organizations, and it is clear to me that this skill set is lacking. Of the industry associations I have worked with, my work with Women in Reliability and Asset Management (WIRAM), the Society of Maintenance and Reliability Professionals (SMRP), and the Maintenance Community are among my proudest achievements. With SMRP, I recently worked on a panel to review industry certification exams. I learned a lot from that session but was excluded from certain portions due to my lack of education. With the maintenance community, I publish educational articles and contributed to a recent book on asset management.

I do not currently have Grad School interest.

My hobbies include cooking, dancing, travel and musical theatre.