Congratulations, Tiffany Johnson: MSR Celebrates a Contributor, Arts Leader and Carlson School MBA Graduate
The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder celebrates contributor Tiffany Johnson on earning her Master of Business Administration from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, completing four years of graduate study while working full time at Penumbra Theatre, where she is now helping lead the organization through its historic 50th anniversary season.
Tiffany Johnson has always known where her heart was: culture, community and the arts. Her path to an MBA was not about chasing a title. It was about becoming the leader her organization needed her to be.
Johnson earned her bachelor’s degree in English literature with a minor in African American studies from the University of Minnesota’s College of Liberal Arts in 2016, with a focus in communications and journalism. After spending about three years in media sales with the Star Tribune and Greenspring, she found herself wanting to contribute more directly to community and culture. That desire led her to Penumbra Theatre, where she joined as marketing manager. She has also contributed to the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder over the years, writing with an arts and culture emphasis.
In 2019, Penumbra President Sarah Bellamy announced the theater would evolve into a national center for racial healing. Johnson saw where the organization was headed and made a decision.
“I figured my background currently wasn’t going to be enough for me to be an asset to the future of this company,” she said. “I really wanted to get my MBA to increase my business acumen and to learn more about what it means to be a leader in a growing organization.”
Four years later, she has done exactly that. Johnson completed her MBA at the Carlson School of Management while working full time at Penumbra, navigating the early years of marriage, she and her husband wed in 2018, and remaining deeply active in her church, Evangelist Crusaders Church in South Minneapolis, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.
“I had nights where I cried over my schoolwork,” she said. “Some classes I didn’t know if I was going to pass them. But it was really a matter of not giving up… just keep going. And every time I pulled through, every time I thought I wasn’t going to, I was able to accomplish what was at hand.”
Her anchor throughout was her faith. “I just give all the glory to God,” she said. “To look back over all of it, four years, and go, wow. God, you did that. I’m just amazed.”
Johnson is not rushing to map out what comes next. Penumbra is celebrating its 50th anniversary season, and she is focused on bringing everything she learned: strategy, brand management, leadership and discipline, to this milestone moment for the organization.
“What does it mean at this really important moment for the company, which is 50 years, to be there contributing in this moment? That is really exciting to me,” she said.
A study abroad experience in São Paulo, Brazil, during her program offered one final revelation. Living and navigating for months in a country where few spoke English, Johnson returned home with a clearer sense of herself.
“I learned that I’m much more capable than I thought,” she said, a sentiment that, as it turns out, all four of this year’s MSR graduates arrived at on their own.