Brenda Leigh Johnson
Elmira, New York, USA

Brenda Leigh Johnson of Elmira, New York, U.S., was appointed to serve a three-year term as trustee of the Kiwanis Children’s Fund beginning October 1, 2022.

Johnson is a member of the Kiwanis Club of Elmira and a former member of the Kiwanis Club of Northport-East Northport, where she served as club president in 2013-14. She subsequently served the New York District as lieutenant governor from 2014-16 and as governor in 2020-21. Johnson was a part of the Kiwanis International Membership and Engagement Committee from 2015-21 and served as The Eliminate Project District Advocate from 2015-19.

“Kiwanis Children’s Fund is at the heart of what we all do through Kiwanis,” Johnson says. “It has a global reach with a local touch.”

She is a member of the Kiwanis Children’s Fund Founders Circle, a Major Gift donor to The Eliminate Project, and a Presidential Walter Zeller Fellow. Johnson achieved Kiwanis International life-member status in 2014 and was recognized as her club’s Kiwanian of the Year in 2011. In addition, she is a Brittany Fellow of the New York District Kiwanis Pediatric Lyme Disease Foundation.

Beginning with her time in the Girl Scouts as a child, Johnson says, community service is “part of my DNA.” She is currently active with the Northport chapter of St. Charles Hospital Auxiliary and General Needs, an organization serving unhoused veterans. She is a founder of the Long Island Alzheimer’s Foundation and a former member of the Walt Whitman Birthplace State Historic Site board.

Prior to her retirement, Johnson worked with Dale Carnegie and Associates, a professional development training organization. In her free time, she enjoys gardening, sailing, entertaining and travel.

Johnson’s husband, Peter, is also a member of the Kiwanis Club of Elmira. They have one child.