Bryan Johnston
LACEY, Wash — A former Oregon lawmaker, one of few Democrats who called assisted suicide a bad idea, has been hired as new president of St. Martin’s University here.
Bryan Johnston, a member of St. Joseph Parish in Salem, is now interim director for Oregon’s Children, Adults and Families Division of the Department of Human Services. He will assume his duties in Lacey on July 1.
“The monastery and the university complement each other and brighten each other,” Johnston says of the school, which is not far from the Washington State Capitol.
“I look forward to assuming my role in the community,” Johnston says. “The students, faculty, staff, monks and supporters have made Saint Martin’s the school it is today, and I get to help all of them make the school what it can be for tomorrow. I also look forward to being part of the greater, state capital community. I have a great interest in how a state accomplishes its role and how it uses its workers to their best advantage. A university can play a vital role in that process.”
Johnston, an attorney, has held administrative posts in higher education. He served as interim president of Willamette University in Salem for a year in the late 1990s. He was a founding faculty member and director of Willamette College of Law’s Center for Dispute Resolution. He later served as associate dean at the law school.
After his interim presidency, he served as professor of conflict management and dean at the Atkinson Graduate School of Management. Johnston’s academic experience also includes terms as adjunct professor at the law schools of the University of New Mexico, University of Bridgeport, University of Oregon and Pepperdine University.
Johnston served as state representative in the Oregon Legislature from 1995 to 1999. Since 2003, he has run a management consultant practice, offering expertise on strategic planning, ethics, board development and organizational development.
“The board of trustees is confident in Bryan Johnston’s ability to provide St. Martin’s with outstanding leadership,” said Ken Parsons, the university board’s chair. “With his distinguished, consensus-building management experience and strong record of strategic planning and community relations, he will lead this institution forward.”
Parsons lauded Johnston for “a knowledge of and commitment to the Benedictine values that define a Saint Martin’s education.”
A native of the south side of Chicago, Johnston earned a bachelor of science degree in education from Northern Illinois University in 1970 and a law degree from Loyola University of Chicago in 1975. He worked for legal aid in Chicago and was an assistant public defender before moving to Oregon.
Johnston and his wife, Anne, have been married for 29 years and have four children, Drew, 23, Courtney, 22, Zach, 16, and John, 12.
St. Martin’s, located on a 320-acre wooded campus, was established in 1895 by the Benedictines.
The school has 1,250 students at its main campus, and 650 more at its five extension campuses located at Fort Lewis Army Post, McChord Air Force Base, Olympic College, Centralia College and Tacoma Community College.
