Celebrating a Servant Leader
Lisa Conrad (center) and Juanita Johnson (standing) share a special moment at Juanita's retirement party.
On the last day of July, we had the privilege of celebrating Juanita Johnson’s 17 years with Advance Memphis. While she remains on staff part-time, she is now enjoying a much-deserved partial retirement. At her celebration, many of us cried. We struggled to reach the words that could describe how much this woman has meant to us.
As we celebrated Juanita’s retirement, her sacrificial love was the prevailing theme. Juanita doesn’t love her neighbors with an ethereal, soft love. She loves them with a costly, practical, hard love. In her time here, she’s given countless rides to our neighbors. She’s told them the hard truths they needed to hear. And she’s patiently taught her younger colleagues about work and life.
Below are some quotes from that bittersweet July day.
Dan Butler, Advance Memphis board chair: You have made such an impact in this neighborhood and in this city, going back to our days at Georgia Pacific, loving those around you and continuing to this day; your whole career is just loving people and pouring into them.
Lucretia Ford, 2010 graduate: You all just don't even know how much she blessed our family. Because everybody in this neighborhood knows my husband and what he used to do. God used Ms. Juanita to open up the doors for us to get a job here, working together. It caused him to move back from what he used to do and work a legit job. We ended up getting married in 2011, and you all supported our marriage. I thank God for (Advance Memphis). I thank God for all the things that y'all ever did for the community, for our family, and for my husband.
Lisa Conrad, 2011 graduate: When I came through the program, I was out there in the world doing some things that I should not have been doing. God brought me through all of that once I came. After Advance Memphis, I never looked back. Me and Ms. Juanita argued every day. Sometimes she sent me home, but she knew I'd be back the next day. … Even after I had left Advance Memphis and went to work over at College Park … I sometimes had no way to get to my mom, who was sick. Ms. Juanita and Ms. Thelma would come and get me if they could. If they couldn’t, they would make sure someone came and got me to get to my mom. I say that to say this: I thank you.
Mike Shaw, former staff member: This was my first job out of college. I was the wrong hire. She turned me into the right hire. I learned professionalism, not just from Ms. Juanita, but from being around Work Life and you ladies in the neighborhood. I learned empathy and professionalism and balancing the two. I learned to keep my personality, but also not get fired. I owe so much to this lady here.
Juanita: I love all of you for putting up with me, for getting mad at me, and then coming back and apologizing. The hardness that you might have seen or heard or been a part of was because I loved you so much. And I knew your potential even when you wanted to fight and kick and scratch and not move. … I'm always that person pushing and prodding and setting this bar up here, rather than mediocrity. We don't do that. You got to keep going for what it is you want from this world. You gotta find your reason. I said it to so many of you, “Find your why. And it's gotta be bigger than just you.” A lot of you have children and grandchildren that are watching you, and you have got to be that example. You're the only example. And if you don't start standing up and taking that role, y'all, we're continuously losing our babies. So love them with hard love. It doesn't hurt them. I promise it doesn’t. ... If I haven't done anything else around here, y'all, I've loved all of you the best way I knew.
Juanita Johnson (far left) poses for a photo early in her Advance Memphis tenure.