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Nicholas Johnson

SUMMARY AND HIGHLIGHTS: This resume reflects the variety of Johnson's roles as: an academic; government official; public interest advocate; administrator, manager and corporate representative; writer, lecturer, TV and radio performer; politician; lawyer; and computer and telecommunications policy specialist.

Among many other things Johnson teaches law, travels widely, is a columnist and public lecturer, school board member, computer enthusiast, and fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science. He has formerly served as co-director of a public health public policy institute, network TV host, congressional candidate, author of books and a nationally syndicated column, FCC Commissioner, and law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black.

He was born in Iowa City, Iowa, in 1934, the son of Wendell and Edna Johnson.  He has now returned from Washington, D.C., to Iowa City, where he lives with his wife, Mary Vasey. They have six children, five grandchildren, a great granddaughter and a cat. 

Contents

ADDRESSES/"COORDINATES"

CURRENT POSITIONS

ACADEMIC AND WRITING EXPERIENCE AND AWARDS

AWARDS GENERAL

BIOGRAPHICAL LISTINGS

BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE

COMPUTERS, TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND ELECTRONICS

INTERNATIONAL

K-12 EDUCATION

LABOR AND PUBLIC INTEREST

LEGAL EXPERIENCE AND HONORS

ORGANIZATIONS, ACTIVE

ORGANIZATIONS, AFFILIATIONS

POLITICAL EXPERIENCE

PRINT JOURNALISM, BROADCASTING EXPERIENCE

PUBLIC HEALTH

PUBLICATIONS

TEACHING

ADDRESSES/"COORDINATES"

CURRENT POSITIONS

Visiting Professor, College of Law, University of Iowa (and Department of Theater Arts, Spring 1999); school board member, Iowa City [Iowa] Community School District; public lecturer (see "Lecture agents," above).  National board/advisory board memberships: Center for Media Education, Cultural Environmental Movement, FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), Institute for Accuracy, International Society for General Semantics, Project Censored, Volunteers in Technical Assistance, War and Peace Foundation, Working Assets Long Distance.  For details of current activities, see "Activities Reports" (from UI College of Law, Iowa Advocate; a link off the main Web site under "Resources").

ACADEMIC AND WRITING EXPERIENCE AND AWARDS

University of Iowa Experimental Schools, 1936-1952. B.A., 1956, LL.B, 1958, University of Texas, Austin. L.H.D., Windham College, 1971.

Phi Beta Kappa, Pi Sigma Alpha, Phi Eta Sigma, Phi Delta Phi, Chancellors, Order of the Coif, Golden Key. Poynter Fellow, Yale University, 1971.

Distinguished visiting professorships: University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1980; Syracuse University, 1980; California State University, Los Angeles, 1986.

Acting associate professor of law, University of California, Berkeley, 1960-63. Adjunct professor of law, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., 1971-73; visiting professor, University of Illinois Law School, Champaign-Urbana, 1976; University of Oklahoma, Norman, 1978; Illinois State University, Normal, 1979; Department of Communication Studies, University of Iowa, 1982-85; College of Law, University of Iowa, 1981-; Department of Theater Arts, University of Iowa, 1999-; University of California San Diego, Western Behavioral Sciences Institute, 1986-91.

Cases and Materials on Oil and Gas Law (2 volumes, 1961); How to Talk Back to Your Television Set (1970); Test Pattern for Living (1972); Cases and Materials on Communications Law (4 volumes, 198186); Introductory and Background Readings for Law of Electronic Media (1993) and Readings Supplement (1994); Law of Electronic Media in a Cyberspace Age (with David Loundy; 2 volumes, 1996); articles, notes and book reviews in such law reviews and journals as California, Columbia, Federal Communications, Georgetown, Iowa, Texas, UCLA, Virginia and Yale. About 400 separate opinions in volumes 4-43 of the official Federal Communications Commission Reports (Second Series), including the book-length Broadcasting in America (42 FCC 2d 1).

Newsweek magazine once listed as one of four individuals most in demand for university presidencies (along with former Secretary of HEW John Gardner, Attorney General Ramsey Clark and Ford Foundation President McGeorge Bundy).

AWARDS, GENERAL

One of Ten Outstanding Young Americans, U.S. Jaycees, 1967; New Republic Public Defender Award, 1971; Civil Liberties Award, Georgia Civil Liberties Union, 1972; DeWitt Carter Reddick Award, University of Texas, 1977; George Stoney Award for Humanistic Communications, National Federation of Local Cable Programmers, 1987.

BIOGRAPHICAL LISTINGS

Primary: Marquis Who's Who in America. Other: Bio-Base (1990); Biography Index (vols. 8, 9, 10; 1971, 1974, 1977); The Blue Book Leaders of the English-Speaking World (1976); Brown, Les, The New York Times Encyclopedia of Television (1977); Burke, W.J. and Howe, Will D., American Authors and Books, 1640 to the Present Day (3rd rev. ed. 1972); Celebrity Register (3rd ed. 1973); Contemporary Authors (vols. 29-32, 1978); Current Biography Yearbook (1968); Directory of Law Teachers; International Authors and Writers Who's Who; Les Brown's Encyclopedia of Television (1982); The New York Times Biographical Edition (1971); Paneth, Donald, The Encyclopedia of American Journalism (1983); Personalities of America; Syndicated Columnist Contacts; Syndicated Columnists Directory; University of Texas Alumni Directory; University of Texas Law Alumni Association Alumni Directory; Who's Who in America (see above); Who's Who in Entertainment; Who's Who in Government (1972); Who's Who in Society; Who's Who in the South and Southwest (1973); Who's Who in U.S. Writers, Editors & Poets; Who's Who in the World (1974; 1976); Who's Who in Writers, Editors & Poets; The Writers Directory (1976; 1980; 1982; 1984; 1986; 1988).

BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE

Sole administrator of billion-dollar Maritime Administration, 1964-66 (Chair, Maritime Subsidy Board; Commandant, Kings Point Maritime Academy; Director, War Shipping Authority; Chair, NATO PBOS). One of seven Commissioners responsible for Federal Communications Commission, 1966-73. IBM Executives' Computer Concepts Course, 1967. Chair and CEO, National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting, Washington, D.C., 1974-78, National Citizens Communications Lobby, 1974-present. Legal representation of nation's largest steel and cement companies and a major airline, 1963-64 (Covington & Burling, Washington, D.C.). Research, teaching, writing and lecturing about oil and gas, shipping, ship building, broadcasting, computers, telephone and related industries. Lecturing to numerous corporations and trade associations. Co-Director, Institute on Health, Behavior and Environmental Policy, 1990-93.  Member school board, Iowa City Community School District ($60-70-million-dollar budget), 1998-.

COMPUTERS, TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND ELECTRONICS

Presidential Advisor, White House Conference on Libraries and Information Services, 1979 (President Jimmy Carter; planned and managed with computer conferences through EIES (Electronic Information Exchange System, New Jersey Institute of Technology)); former Chair, Virtual Classroom Project, NJIT (testing of software and teaching effectiveness via computer conferencing); former ConnectEd faculty (New School for Social Research, New York City; computer conference-provided college education); former University of California San Diego, Western Behavioral Sciences Institute, International Executive Forum, faculty 1986-91 (global computer conferencing executive education). Keynoted 1991 Asia Pacific Networking Forum in Seoul. UI Information Arcade Advisory Council, UI Information Arcade Database Task Force (1991-92).

Illustrative (present and former) computer conferencing/e-mail/online database accounts: America Online, Avalon Network, CompuServe, EasyLink, Internet Navigator, IRIS, Lexis/Nexis, MCIMail, MetaNet, PeaceNet, Prodigy, SCARCNet (global anti-smoking activists), UI LAWNet, UI Weeg, WELL, Westlaw. Web site creation, such as: https://www.nicholasjohnson.org [Previously http://soli.inav.net/~njohnson ]; UI Law Cyberspace Law Seminar use of, publication of papers on, Internet/Web.

Other electronics: Former Commissioner, national FCC, Iowa City Broadband and Telecommunications Commission; publisher Media Watch and access magazines; contributing editor and host, PBS network series, "New Tech Times"; nationally syndicated columnist, "Communications Watch"; professor "Cyberspace Law Seminar" (and "Law of Electronic Media"); extra class amateur radio operator; computer hobbyist; community video camera operator.

INTERNATIONAL

As Maritime Administrator, Chair, NATO, Planning Board for Ocean Shipping, London and Washington (1964-66); F.C.C. commissioner (1966-73); member "Midwest Opinion Leaders" delegation to NATO, 1987; lecturing for American Bar Association/Center for East European Law Initiative (ABA/CEELI), Leigh Lecture Bureau, United States Information Agency, and others. Travel, speaking, writing, broadcasting from Australia (1996), Austria (1997), Belgium, Canada, Chile (1996), Costa Rica (1994), Denmark, England, France, Georgia (1998), Germany (old East and West), Hong Kong (1996), Iceland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan (1993), Korea, Malaysia (1996), Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland (1997), Puerto Rico, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand (1996), and Vietnam. Broadcasting studies: Australia, Canada, England, Germany, Japan, Sweden. Writings translated into German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Spanish. Board member, Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA); Fellow, World Academy of Art and Science (Executive Board member 1993-97).  Member, Supplemental International and Comparative Law Faculty, University of Iowa College of Law International and Comparative Law Program.

K-12 EDUCATION

Johnson was elected to the Board of Directors, Iowa City [Iowa] Community School District for a three-year term, 1998-.  He is writing a bi-weekly column on K-12 education and school board issues, Iowa City Press-Citizen, 1998-, and maintains a personal "School Board" Web site with links not only to his columns, memos and other School Board writing, but also to hundreds of others' educational policy research Web sites.

LABOR AND PUBLIC INTEREST

Reputation as Maritime Administrator and FCC Commissioner as outspoken consumer advocate (e.g., Professor John Kenneth Galbraith once characterized Johnson as "citizens' least frightened friend in Washington"). Subsequent activities as Chair, National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting and National Citizens Communications Lobby further established credentials with "public interest movement." Thirty-year informal association with Ralph Nader. Government responsibilities and subsequent coalition-building efforts often included organized labor; had unprecedented party primary support from UAW in 1974 Congressional race, local labor support in 1998 Iowa City school board election.

LEGAL EXPERIENCE AND HONORS

Iowa Bar Association Citizenship Awardee, 1951. LL.B., 1958, University of Texas, Austin; articles editor, Texas Law Review; Order of the Coif; Phi Delta Phi. Law clerk to U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, Judge John R. Brown, Houston and New Orleans, 1958-59. Law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black, Washington, D.C., 1959-60. Associate, Covington & Burling, Washington, D.C., 1963-64. Chairman, Maritime Subsidy Board, 1964-66. Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission, 1966-73. Law professor, University of California, Berkeley, 1960-63; Georgetown University, 1971-73; University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, 1976; University of Iowa, 1981-. Member of the Bar: U.S. Supreme Court, 1963; Iowa, 1974; District of Columbia, 1963; Texas, 1958.

ORGANIZATIONS, ACTIVE

Aspen Institute, Carter Center, Center for Media Education, Cultural Environmental Movement, FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), Institute for Accuracy, International Society for General Semantics, News of the Weird/View from the Ledge, Project Censored, Public Citizen, Time Dollars, War and Peace Foundation, Volunteers in Technical Assistance, Working Assets Long Distance, World Academy of Art and Science.

ORGANIZATIONS, AFFILIATIONS

American Civil Liberties Union, American Association of Retired Persons, Advocacy Institute, Amnesty International, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Coalition on Alcohol Advertising, Committee to Open the Channel from People to Congress, Common Cause (former national board member), Common Cause of Iowa, Communications Consortium, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, Cultural Environmental Movement, D.C. Bar, Hightower and Associates, Iowa City Public Library Friends Foundation, Iowa Civil Liberties Union (former board member), Iowa Democratic Party, Iowa Law School Foundation, Johnson County Democrats, Johnson County United Way, Kazakhstan Media Project, Media Foundation (Adbusters), Melrose Avenue Neighborhood Association, New Pioneer Coop, Planet Central Television, Public Citizen Health Research Group, Unitarian-Universalist Society (Iowa City, IA), UI Project on the Rhetoric of Inquiry, University of Texas Law Alumni Association. And see, above: "Academic and Writing Experience and Awards," "Legal Experience and Honors," and "Organizations, Active." See generally, "Affiliations" (a link off of the main Web site under "Resources").

POLITICAL EXPERIENCE

Experience at virtually every level from Precinct Captain (Austin, Texas, 1950s; Iowa City, Iowa, 1980s), City (Iowa City Broadband and Telecommunications Commissioner, 1981-87), County (successful school board campaign and election 1998, political party county central committee, executive committee, platform committee chair), State (various campaigns of others), Congressional District (candidate Iowa Third District, 1974 primary), U.S. Senate and House (briefly U.S. Senate candidate, 1972; testifying on dozens of occasions as agency head or public interest organization representative), Party National Committee (board member, DNC Harriman Communications Center, Washington, D.C.), Presidential campaigns (since 1948; in 1964 as member of President Johnson's administration; 1976 coverage of Republican and Democratic National Conventions for National Public Radio) and internationally (Chair, NATO Planning Board for Ocean Shipping, 1964-66; "Midwest Opinion Leader" delegate to NATO, 1986; Humphrey Institute "Rethinking Global Governance" project; Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA) board member; World Academy of Art and Science fellow). Three-time Presidential appointee: U.S. Maritime Administrator (Johnson Administration); Federal Communications Commission Commissioner (Johnson Administration; carry-over to Nixon Administration); Presidential Advisor, White House Conference on Libraries and Information Services (President Jimmy Administration).

PRINT JOURNALISM, BROADCASTING EXPERIENCE

Author, How to Talk Back to Your Television Set (1970) and Test Pattern for Living (1971); publisher access magazine, 1975-77; nationally syndicated columnist, "Communications Watch," 1982-86 (Gannett; Register and Tribune; Cowles; King Features syndicates); local columnist, Iowa City Press-Citizen (K-12 education and school board issues, 1998-); applicant, NASA Journalist in Space Program; articles in such popular publications as Atlantic, Harpers, The Nation, The New Republic, The New York Times, Parade, Progressive, Saturday Review, The Washington Post and Wired. Some writing translated into German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Spanish.

Host and contributing editor, PBS national network TV series, "New Tech Times," 1983-84; radio commentaries, National Public Radio, 1974-78, 1983-86; radio debates with Pat Buchanan (WRC-AM, summer 1976); guest on such network and syndicated shows as The Advocates, Dick Cavett, Face the Nation, Good Morning America, Merv Griffin, Kup's Show, MacNeil-Lehrer, Bill Moyers Journal, ABC Nightline, Over Easy, Tom Snyder's Tomorrow Show, Steve Allen, Phil Donahue, Mike Douglas and over 200 local television and radio programs; over 1000 public lectures as public official and through The Leigh Bureau.

Only FCC Commissioner ever featured on the cover of the Rolling Stone. Informal working relationships over the years with various Hollywood producers, directors, writers and actors. Teaching in departments of communication studies and theater.

PUBLIC HEALTH

Co-Director, Institute for Health, Behavior and Environmental Policy, 1990-93 (projects on children's use of tobacco, handgun injuries, human genome public policy, risk assessment, television impact on health behavior). As FCC Commissioner helped establish "anti-smoking" public service announcements, credited with decline in U.S. tobacco use. Author, "A Public Health Response to Handgun Injuries: Prescription -- Communication and Education," in American Journal of Preventive Medicine (May/June 1993). Participant, CDC&P working group on "Using Entertainment-Education to Reach a Generation at Risk (February 1994).

PUBLICATIONS

Bibliography, Nicholas Johnson: A Bibliography (1952-1995) (333 pp.), available at Web site and in print; includes books, chapters, articles, appearances, radio and TV.  Most writing and transcripts from April 1996 available in full text from Web site, see "Recent Publications." The full text of entire books, and a selection of earlier articles, also available, see, e.g.,  "Archives," or "Book: How to Talk Back" [to Your Television Set] under "Resources" on the main Web site.

TEACHING

Current courses: Cyberspace Law Seminar, Entertainment Law, Law of Electronic Media. Courses previously taught: Administrative Law, Agency and Partnership, Broadcast History, Broadcast Regulation, Constitutional Law, Corporations, Mass Communications Law, Oil and Gas Law. 

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