Linda Byrd-Johnson

Linda Byrd-Johnson is the Senior Director of the Student Service Division at the United States Department of Education.  She also has served as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary.  In that role, she provided overall leadership for overseeing, administering and coordinating discretionary and formula grants, and contracts to over 100 employees in the offices of Student Service, Institutional Service and the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education.  In addition, she has provided advice to the Acting Assistant Secretary, Office of Postsecondary Education and other Department leaders on the formulation of policy, the design of operating programs, legislative proposals and controversial and sensitive issues.

In her role as Director of Student Service, Dr. Byrd-Johnson oversees the TRIO Programs as well as GEAR UP and several graduate programs that include the Javits Fellowship Program, the Erma Byrd Scholarship, and the Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need.

She began her career with the Department as a member of the Office of the Liaison for Minorities and Women and as a staff member of the presidentially appointed National Advisory Committee on Black Higher Education and Black Colleges and Universities.

Dr. Byrd-Johnson received her undergraduate degree in History and Africana Studies from Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY and her Masters and Doctorate degrees in African Studies and Research from Howard University in Washington, DC.  She is a graduate of the Executive Potential Program and was honored by Howard University as a distinguished Ph.D. alumna in 1998.  In 2014, she received the Lifetime Service Award from COE.  The Lifetime Service Award is a special award established to honor individuals whose lives have been dedicated to promoting the cause of educational opportunity as well as committed to helping students overcome class, social, academic, and cultural barriers to succeed in college.