Keeping the Dream Alive Award Winner - 2009
Anis Johnson

Anis Johnson's great, great grandfather was Joshua Reed Giddings, a self educated farmer, schoolteacher, lawyer, and a member of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio from 1838 until 1859. As a legislator he actively pursued the abolition of slavery. This man was the most influential person in Anis' life, demonstrating to her the necessity, in her words, "of standing up and saying that everyone is equal".

Anis' life reflects that commitment. An educator, she taught many subjects to children from kindergarten through high school, as well as to adults. She taught in four states - New Mexico, Ohio, Texas, and Alabama. With her husband Stewart who served in the military, she traveled to Korea and Japan and continued to teach in each new community, making friends from many walks of life.

While teaching and raising her own three children, Janelle, Gregory and Eric, Anis found time to work with more than 20 organizations and charities, frequently in leadership roles. Her community work encompassed literacy programs, veteran services, religious organizations, neighborhood groups, child welfare, childhood education, women and youth groups. She has been published in several journals. As founder and coordinator of Highland High Schools "Community Resource People at HHS" she facilitated contact among students of different backgrounds and beliefs, so that they too would learn to value diversity. She believed that this would "broaden student's perspectives, sharpen their minds, and prepare them to live in a diverse society."

Anis has dedicated her life to helping others through her service as an educator, organizer and advocate of diversity, justice and equal rights. She stands as a wonderful example of all those who "Keep the Dream Alive", following Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s legacy of promoting love and justice in the community.