Kristi Johnson was born and raised in Nebraska. She is strongly connected to her Danish heritage and speaks Danish and Swedish. All four of her grandparents were born in Denmark and Sweden. She attended Dana College in Blair, Nebraska, a school founded by Danish immigrants in 1884. Kristi came to the Washington, D.C. area when she took a job at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. In 1971 she was hired as a writer for the White House Speechwriters’ Office. She describes working with the staff of writers that included Noel Koch, David Gergen, and John McLauglin. The group prepared materials for Gerald Ford, Bob Dole, Charles Colson, Henry Kissinger, and the Nixon family. Among her many duties, she helped draft plaques to be placed on the moon by the Apollo astronauts.

Kristi described memorable experiences from that time, including her use of the White House limousine service to deliver staff writings to Capitol Hill. Another special moment was when she received tickets to sit in the President’s Box at the Kennedy Center.
Kristi’s education included receiving a master’s degree in Scandinavian Studies and European Diplomatic History at the University of Minnesota and a doctorate in Comparative International Education at the University of Maryland. Eventually, Kristi’s career focused on academia. She became a professor of comparative and international education at Marymount College in Arlington, Virginia, serving on the faculty there for 16 years. Her publications have included research on her “boyfriend” Hans Christian Anderson and also a translation of Victor Borge’s autobiography.

Along the way Kristi married John Johnson and settled in Bethesda, Maryland. The couple had a daughter, Lisa, who is now a genomics scientist in California and mother of Oskar, age five and Saya age four. Several good reasons for Kristi’s frequent trips to California!
In 1971, she began volunteering at the National Lutheran Home when she accompanied a youth group from St.Paul’s Lutheran Church to the Lutheran Home then located in D.C. Throughout her life, Kristi loved and studied music. She is a gifted pianist, organist, and performer on the Nyckelharp, a Swedish fiddle. When the Holkamp pipe organ was installed in the chapel in 1980, Kristi then knew that when she retired, she certainly would enjoy becoming a resident at The Village at Rockville — which she did in 2019. Since then she has continued to be an active volunteer at TVAR. On Mondays she visits and plays piano for the Health Center residents; on Thursdays she coordinates weekly rehearsals and schedules performances for “The Villagers” chamber quartet, where Kristi plays her Swedish fiddle along with George Parakamannil on flute, Tom Hudson on cello, and John Forrer on violin. She periodically substitutes for the chapel organist at Sunday worship or special services.

Kristi has also been active with local Scandinavian activities, serving on the board of directors of the Museum of Danish America in Elk Horn, Iowa. She often visits family and friends in Scandinavia.

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