"President Johnson has long and wide-ranging experience in theological education administration," said Jonathan Strandjord, ELCA program director for seminaries who also serves as an advisory member for ELCA seminary presidential search committees. "She has been a leader in imagining and building fresh ways of identifying and educating new leaders for the church – and then paying close attention to the results of those efforts. Her track record of fostering collaboration is strong. Most important of all, she is passionate about faithfully serving the free course of the gospel," he said.

"Wartburg grew out of a mission tradition, out of the hearts of compassionate leaders who saw that those in their midst were 'scattered like sheep without shepherds,'" said Johnson, referring to early leaders of Wartburg, including Wilhelm Loehe, a German missionary who helped found the seminary in 1854 and whose legacy remains rooted in the seminary's mission.

"Today the frontiers to which Loehe sent his pastors are largely established. The gospel took root in our towns, in our hearts, in our lives, blessing us with generations who have heard the gospel and responded with lives of faith," Johnson said. "A good look around will tell you that we have new frontiers, that again there are many in our midst who are scattered like sheep without shepherds. But the frontiers are no longer out there somewhere, they are in our own back yards.  It is our neighbors, friends, co-workers and grandchildren who stand in need of a new church, new ways of proclaiming the old, old story," she said.

Prior to her election, Johnson had served as vice president for mission advancement at Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia since 2012 and as associate director of admissions from 2006 to 2012. She served as associate director of admissions at Wartburg from 1999 to 2004 and as pastor of Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church in Spragueville, Iowa, from 2000 to 2004.

Johnson received a Bachelor of Arts in German from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, in 1991 and a Master of Divinity degree from Wartburg in 1999.

Johnson, who is the third woman to lead an ELCA seminary, said she is "confident that together we can and will build a new emergency plan to reach those on the new frontiers. Wartburg is nimble, faithful, cohesive, missional – and more than these – is ready to serve God and church."