About Amy Hannah Johnston

Amy Johnston of Fredericksburg, VA, is a Retired Brigadier General who served over three decades in a distinguished career with the US Army. Born and raised in Edina, MN, and Findlay, Ohio, her upper Midwestern upbringing imbued Amy with a strong work ethic, dedication to service and connection within her community.

During her military career, Amy Johnston served in several humanitarian and combat deployments in strategic locations. These include Seoul, Korea, and Mons, Belgium, where she held key staff positions at United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command, Korea, and The Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), the military headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) Allied Command Operations. She currently serves on an advisory council for the Center for Information, Democracy and Citizenship at the American University in Bulgaria.

Johnston is passionate about honoring her husband’s legacy, Major General Gary W. Johnston, who died unexpectedly. He was a highly decorated Military Intelligence Officer whose legacy continues to be honored with the Gary Johnston Leadership Award at Arkansas Tech University that Amy established in his name.

Amy Hannah Johnston attended Ohio State University to study psychology, a science field that has always interested her. She obtained her B.S. before attending the American University in Washington, DC, where she completed a master’s program in communications. These fields of study would prove to be instrumental in Amy’s successful military career. They not only gave her a deep understanding of human motivations, but she gained an even greater understanding of how a large governmental organization works. During her military training and deployments, Johnston remained committed to learning and advancing her career at every opportunity. She holds an M.S. in National Resource Strategy with an Information Operations Concentration from the Eisenhower School’s Industrial College, a part of the National Defense University in Washington, DC. Her journey to becoming a commissioned officer also led her to graduate from the Command General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Amy Johnston has led a distinguished military career of 31 years, in which she performed in many senior-level assignments during overseas assignments that put her excellent communication skills to use. She has also been recognized for her ability to engage in strategic-level operations in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Her multiple humanitarian and combat deployment roles included Operation Sea Signal in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where she served to assist Cuban and Haitian migrants seeking political asylum who were processed and housed under US policies at the time.