Johnston Scholarship in Strategic Communication

This fund honors Earl and Brenda Johnston, long-time business communicators and educators in the Twin Cities. Its goal is to provide financial support to students seeking to advance their education and careers in strategic communication. 

Earl and Brenda met at the University of Iowa, where they studied Journalism and Mass Communication. Upon graduating with their bachelor’s degrees, they married and began building careers as reporters, business communicators and educators. Earl earned a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota’s Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He pursued a career in the Twin Cities’ business communications, public relations, and advertising communities, specializing in the health care and financial services sectors. He held communications, marketing and brand leadership roles with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, HealthPartners, and US Bancorp Piper Jaffray. He served as Head of Strategic Communication for Thrivent Financial from 2004 to 2014, and as Editor-in-Chief and Vice President of Strategic Marketing and Communications for UnitedHealthcare from 2015 to 2022. He also taught hundreds of students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels at the Hubbard School, which was one of his greatest joys later in his career. 

Following stints as a reporter at WHO-TV and WOI-TV in Des Moines, Iowa, Brenda served as a producer for both KTCA and KSTP in the Twin Cities. While at KTCA, she worked on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour and Almanac, the popular weekly news and public affairs program. She also held business communication roles at Honeywell/Alliant Techsystems and Be the Match, where she served as Director of Public Education & Communications from 1992 to 1994. Later in her career, Brenda served as an educator in residence, a high school Language Arts teacher and a private Language Arts tutor for secondary and postsecondary students across the country.

Thank you for your support! Together we can make a difference.