Glen Johnson
OKLAHOMA CITY — Glen D. Johnson Jr., former Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives and former higher education chancellor, has joined Crowe & Dunlevy as a director in the law firm’s Oklahoma City office.
Johnson served as Chancellor of the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education from 2007 to 2021; during that time he led a state system of 25 state colleges and universities and 10 constituent agencies. The State Regents named him Chancellor Emeritus in September 2021.
Prior to that, Johnson served as president of Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant from 1997 to 2006. In 1996-97 he served as director of public policy at the University of Oklahoma and as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Oklahoma College of Law.
Johnson served seven consecutive two-year terms as State Representative for House District 24, in 1983-96, and in 1990 was elected to the first of three consecutive two-year terms as Speaker of the 101-member House of Representatives. At the time he was 36 and the youngest House Speaker in the United States, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
He left the Legislature to run for the 2nd District congressional seat, but lost to the late Tom Coburn in the 1996 general election.
Johnson’s first foray into public service was as a member of the Okemah school board.
His father, Glen Johnson Sr., was a one-term state House member and a one-term congressman. One of Johnson’s prized possessions is a picture of the U.S. House of Representatives, showing his father seated between then-Representative and future President John F. Kennedy and Oklahoman Carl Albert, who later served six years as Speaker of the U.S. House.
“Glen brings a unique blend of legal, governmental, education, and administrative experience to our firm,” said Roger A. Stong, Crowe & Dunlevy president and chief executive officer. “He will be a great asset to our Administrative and Regulatory Practice Group with his practice focusing on administrative law and education law. His extensive expertise will also benefit our clients that need assistance with governmental and legislative issues at the state and federal levels.”
Johnson graduated with honors from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in political science and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his law degree from the OU College of Law, and in 2009 he received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Oklahoma City University.
He was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2006, the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame in 2016, and the Oklahoma Association of Community Colleges Hall of Fame in 2021; he also has been named a Life Fellow of The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation.
In 2020 Johnson received Leadership Oklahoma’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2021 he received the Key Contributor Award from the Oklahoma Academy.