Nadine Farid Johnson

Nadine Farid Johnson is the inaugural policy director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, where she is responsible for the Institute’s policy and advocacy efforts, leading engagement with U.S. government and other officials to advance the Institute’s policy objectives.

A former U.S. diplomat, Farid Johnson has testified before Congress on human rights, free expression, and constitutional issues. She was previously the managing director of Washington office and Free Expression Programs at PEN America, focusing on foreign policy, tech policy, privacy, press freedom, and First Amendment issues.

At the State Department, Farid Johnson’s work spanned the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and multilateral affairs. Previously, she was a professor of law and political science at Gonzaga University and a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, where she directed a clinical project on pharmaceutical patents and human rights. She served as the executive director of the ACLU of Kansas and, in the private sector, worked as a patent litigator and later oversaw operations and community engagement at Google in Los Angeles. She is a graduate of DePauw University and Tulane Law School and studied national security strategy at the U.S. Naval War College.

Farid Johnson is a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for International Policy. She is a frequent media contributor, with commentary in and appearances on national and international outlets. She resides in Washington, D.C.

Education

• JD, Tulane University School of Law
• BA, DePauw University