The College of Liberal and Professional Studies is excited to announce that Dr. Cecil W. Johnson III has been selected to address the College of Liberal and Professional Studies Class of 2025 at the graduation ceremony on Sunday, May 18. Dr. Johnson is a global workforce dynamics researcher and strategist. He also serves as Global Head of Inclusive Business Strategy—Innovative Medicine at Johnson & Johnson, where he has served as a leader in sales, management, learning, talent development, and global talent management. At Penn, Dr. Johnson is currently a visiting scholar in the Organizational Dynamics Programs and also serves as a member of the Penn LPS Online Employer Advisory Board. “LPS teaches knowledge and skills that are really applicable out in the real world,” he says. “Theory is the platform, and practical application is the catapult.”
Dr. Johnson has led high-performing teams and critical initiatives at Johnson & Johnson to create innovative, business-relevant talent and organizational development strategies advancing culture, capability, and business impact. While in Global Talent Management, a significant part of his experience was global executive development focused on preparing talent to thrive in C-suite roles. He expanded the organization’s talent innovation capability and external value proposition by partnering top talent with external healthcare start-up CEOs to solve business model and organizational capability challenges. He further evolved the platform to include health center executives and global social enterprises on the front lines of delivering critical healthcare to communities.
A Philadelphia native who began his healthcare career sweeping floors in his father’s pharmacy at an early age, Dr. Johnson is a lifelong advocate for education. “Education can take people to places where they otherwise wouldn’t go and might not know existed,” he says. “I’ve always been energized by creating an environment where individuals can have an a-ha moment—and translate that into an a-ha momentum.” He serves on the Board of Managers of the Associated Alumni of the Central High School of Philadelphia, the second-oldest continuously public high school in the United States and a four-year university preparatory magnet school; he also chairs the Scholarship and Prizes Committee that distributes over $150k annually to Central High graduates. Dr. Johnson is the author of What to Pack? 21 Essential Stories to Take on Your College Journey; a percentage of the book’s profits contribute to scholarships awarded by the Athena Educational Foundation, a 501c3 foundation founded by Dr. Johnson and his wife Shawna.
Cecil is a proud alum of Hampton University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Management. He holds a Master of Science in Organizational Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania, where his graduate work led him to develop a new organizational metaphor: The Organization as a Romantic Partner. The metaphor explores and reveals that employees may “fall in love” with companies in ways that parallel interpersonal relationships and impacts organizational culture, talent development, and productivity.
Although he jokes about wanting to be “one and done” after the master’s degree, he went on to complete a PhD in Global Leadership and Change at Pepperdine University. “There were still things that I was curious about, questions I wanted to ask, and questions I wanted to answer,” he reflects. “I wanted to increase my capacity to learn, to explore, and to explain. Those desires continue to exist today.” His doctoral research focused on global workforce dynamics and the organizational performance implications across countries. “Most of what I talk and write about—and what I really like to reveal and unlock—is about employee-organizational relationships,” he observes. More than his professional and academic accomplishments, however, he takes great pride in his family relationships: proud husband to Shawna, and father to Cecily (a New York University Film & Television graduate) and Ellis (currently a high school senior at Germantown Academy).
The 2025 College of Liberal and Professional Studies Graduation Ceremony will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 18, in Marian Anderson Hall at the Kimmel Center (300 South Broad Street). For more information, see our webpage for graduating students.
