As Executive Vice President at the 5-Star Accredited Lubbock Chamber of Commerce, Norma Ritz Johnson oversees business advocacy, public policy and government relations as well as community development and communications efforts.
Johnson joined the Chamber staff in 2004 with previous public policy and issues management experience with National Sorghum Producers where she was part of a team that tripled federal funding for grain sorghum research and garnered sorghum the largest increase in program support among all crops in the 2002 Farm Bill. Before that, she served as West Texas Chief of Marketing & Agribusiness Development for the Texas Department of Agriculture during Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s time as Texas Agriculture Commissioner.
Johnson earned a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Education & Communications from Texas Tech University. She is an alumnus of Leadership Lubbock, Texas Agricultural Lifetime Leadership and Leadership Texas.
She has received the U.S. Chamber Institute of Organizational Management (IOM) designation and in 2011, she earned the Certified Chamber Executive (CCE) professional designation from the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE). She is a Past Chair of the ACCE Government Relations Division and also serves on the organization’s CCE Commission and on the Board of the ACCE Community Growth Educational Foundation. She also serves on the Board of the Texas Association of Business.
In 2007, Johnson was recognized with a “Top Twenty Under 40” award by the Young Professionals of Greater Lubbock, and in 2006 was named a “Top Twenty Hispanic” in Lubbock by Latino Lubbock Magazine. In 2011, Johnson was recognized as a “Graduate of Distinction” by the Texas Tech University Department of Agricultural Education and Communications.
She serves on the Advisory Board of the Texas Tech College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, the Revolving Loan Review Committee of the Caprock Business Finance Corporation and on the Breedlove Foods Board of Directors.
As a sidenote, Johnson was born one block from the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce and was married across the street from the Lubbock Chamber. In 1985, as a high school junior, she was named the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce Outstanding South Plains Youth award recipient.