Nakia Johnson is an experienced leader in the nonprofit/social impact sector with over 20 years of experience providing programmatic, grant-based, and culturally responsive trauma-informed services to communities throughout New York City and beyond. 

Nakia is equally committed to creating spaces that are welcoming and affirming as she is to designing and implementing high-quality content.  

Nakia holds a Master of Public Administration from the former Baruch College School of Public Affairs (now the Marxe School of Public & International Affairs) where she was inducted into the Pi Alpha Alpha (PAA) Honor Society for Public Affairs & Administration.  She is a recipient of New York Nonprofit Media’s 40 under 40 award and holds a professional certificate in Executive Education Training from the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Services and Business Administration.  She has a Bachelor of Science in Management from Manhattan College. 

Before joining Custom Collaborative, Nakia held roles as National Director of the Core Certificate Program and Program Director at the Institute for Nonprofit Practice (INP), and Program Manager at FPWA (formerly Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies). In each role, Nakia leveraged her programmatic experience to increase the capacity of nonprofit/social impact sector staff and organizations while utilizing a social justice lens to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. 

Nakia is passionate about the endless possibilities that arise at the intersection of care, excellence, attention to detail, and dedicated work. She believes deeply in capacity building and professional development strategies that catalyze and unlock agency and yield impactful results.