Alexis McGill Johnson on Paving a Path for Planned Parenthood’s Future

9 to 5ish with theSkimm

Planned Parenthood president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson is a self-described “movement baby" as her parents fought for racial equality during the civil rights movement. As an adult, she mixed pop culture with civic engagement to turn out young voters of color. Even though she credited her success to the women who raised her, she wasn’t specifically thinking about the role of gender in social justice issues. Then she walked by a billboard in SoHo depicting the dire state of reproductive health care for Black women. It quickly became all she could think about.

In this episode of 9 to 5ish, Alexis shares:

• Her go-to bagel order as a certified Jersey girl
• The biggest lesson her mom taught her about community organizing
• Why a Princeton professor thanked her after she called out his racial prejudice
• How she finds time to plan for the future of the org with so much uncertainty
• Her secret to getting people to see her perspective on politicized issues like abortion