Douglas A. Johnson has been a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School since 2013, and also served as the Faculty Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy from 2013 to 2017. Now entering retirement, Professor Johnson leaves behind a massive legacy at both the Kennedy School and the Carr Center, with lasting impressions on students, staff, and worldwide activists.
Doug Johnson has been a committed advocate of human rights since the 1970s, when he chaired the Infant Formula Action Coalition, also known as INFACT. It launched a boycott against the world’s largest food corporation, Nestlé, to force it to change its marketing practices. He also co-founded the International Nestlé Boycott Committee, which had a collective membership of 40 million members and grew to include 120 major national organizations.
In 1988, Professor Johnson was hired by the Minnesota-based Center for the Victims of Torture. By the time he stepped down as its Executive Director in 2012, the Center had become the preeminent treatment facility in the United States, supporting 33 rehabilitation centers in the U.S. and 17 centers abroad with technical assistance and funding. During his tenure, the Center provided services to more than 23,000 torture survivors. Professor Johnson led several efforts to mobilize U.S. public policy, including the Torture Victims Relief Act of 1998, which created an annual funding stream of $25 million to support the rehabilitation of torture survivors around the globe.
Upon joining the Carr Center in 2013, Professor Johnson created programs to focus on intractable global challenges, including ending the use of torture worldwide—which led him to develop and co-direct the Carr Center's Project on the Costs and Consequences of the U.S. Decision to Use Torture as a Weapon of War and publish “" with co-authors Alberto Mora and Averell Schmidt in Foreign Affairs. He continued his focuses on the power of social justice movements to effect change and the use of transitional justice, and taught "Strategizing for Human Rights: Moving from Ideals to Practice," "Nonviolent Resistance in the Age of Authoritarians," and "National Security and Human Rights: The Case of Torture" during his time as Lecturer of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School.
Empowering Students and Activists
Professor Johnson's classes have inspired many students over the years to deepen their work in human rights and social justice issues. "One of the defining moments of my career came in 2016 when I enrolled in Professor Johnson’s executive course, Leading Nonviolent Movements for Social Progress, which radically shifted my perspective on the role of technology in human rights movements," said Danai Nhando (MC/MPA '26), now a Student Ambassador with the Carr Center. "This course helped me see how digital tools could be harnessed to amplify social justice causes on a scale that was previously unimaginable. The experience was transformative and deepened my commitment to advancing human rights through innovative, tech-driven approaches."
Most recently, Professor Johnson was a major part of the Carr Center's second International LGBTQI+ Activism Summit in October 2024, an immersive learning experience that brings together LGBTQI+ leaders from around the world to learn proven strategies for catalyzing powerful social movements that dismantle myths and stigma harming these communities worldwide. Leading two of the Summit's lectures, Professor Johnson taught themes of "Building Strategic Alliances" and "Tactical Mapping" to the 20 activists in attendance, who joined us from 20 countries worldwide where LGBTQI+ rights are imperiled.
At the Summit, Professor Johnson pushed the activists to think about who their potential allies could be in their LGBTQI+ rights movement, but, more importantly, to determine their main opponents. Reflecting on the session, Kasha Nabagasera—an activist who attended the Summit representing Uganda—pointed out how meaningful Professor Johnson's discussion was, and how she will bring home with her what she has learned. “For me, the Summit came at the perfect time, because my organization has been in a period where we are saying that we need to go back to the drawing board as a movement. We know who our opponents are, but we never really knew how to identify who exactly has the power to change the narrative," she said. "Now, thanks to Professor Johnson's Tactical Mapping, we know how to identify these people. This session gave me the time to really map out our domestic cause.”
Diego Garcia Blum worked closely with Professor Johnson both during his time as a student at Harvard Kennedy School and in his current role as Director of the Carr Center's Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program. "Professor Johnson’s teaching was a cornerstone in my education at the Harvard Kennedy School. In his class, I learned tools that are now fundamental to the work I do, and that I now share with the activists I train. His departure represents a significant loss to the school, but also an opportunity for Harvard to reaffirm its commitment to continuing the education of human rights defenders. We must ensure his legacy lives on by continuing to offer his groundbreaking curriculum," he said.
Professor Johnson has inspired innumerable scholars and activists at Harvard Kennedy School and the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy to continue his legacy of dedication to human rights and social justice, and these scholars will bring what they have learned out into their fields of practice all over the world to enact change.