LMJ Global Foundation turns potential into possibility; equipping girls with the education, confidence, and opportunity to lead without limits.
That philosophy was born in the examination room.
“A girl walks into my exam room and her report card says she is falling behind. Her body tells me she is pregnant. Her school sees a student whose grades have suddenly dropped. I see a young woman whose entire life has just changed. Same girl. Same week. Two very different stories.
You cannot teach a girl you cannot see.”
Lorna Mae Johnson
Talent is everywhere. Opportunity is not. LMJ Global Foundation closes that gap.
Real girls. Real stories.
Real change.
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Change scales through people. There is more than one way to stand with a girl who is deciding what she is capable of.
Three decades of showing up.
Convenings, classrooms, panels, and state rooms — the relationships behind the work.
One purpose.
One continuum.
A foundation built at the intersection of health, education, sport, and leadership — led by someone who has lived all four.
“Because sometimes changing a girl’s future begins with something even more fundamental:
Seeing her. Listening to her. Believing in what she can become. You cannot teach a girl you cannot see.”
Lorna Mae Johnson
Lorna Mae Johnson
Lorna Mae Johnson is a nurse practitioner and nurse-midwife who has spent decades providing maternal and reproductive healthcare to women and families in underserved communities through AFC Medical Group.
She came to the United States recruited out of nursing school in Canada, as both a healthcare professional and an elite sprinter. She qualified at the Olympic level and competed during an extraordinary era of women's track, alongside athletes including Florence Griffith Joyner, Evelyn Ashford, and three-time Olympic medalist Alice Brown. She and Brown now translate those lessons into pathways for a new generation of young athletes, identifying talent and developing the discipline, confidence, and leadership that extend well beyond sport.
Her public service has run alongside her clinical work. She was appointed by President Barack Obama to the President's Advisory Committee on the Arts at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and appointed again during the administration of President Joseph R. Biden. She served as Honorary Consul of Jamaica in Los Angeles, strengthening ties between Jamaica and local businesses and communities. She has also contributed her voice internationally to the advancement of women and girls, including as a United Nations essayist, alongside leaders such as Melinda Gates and Queen Noor of Jordan.
That service has earned international recognition. She was conferred as a Queen Mother in Ghana and is a recipient of the Sino-Phil Asia International Peace Award, among other honors for her humanitarian and civic contributions.
An entrepreneur, philanthropist, healthcare executive, author, former elite athlete, and global convener, she has spent her career bringing people, institutions, and resources together around one central belief: talent is everywhere, opportunity is not. Her book, My Mother, My Champion, was inspired by the woman whose strength, discipline, resilience, and belief shaped her own journey.
- Founder & Chair, LMJ Global Foundation
- Twice appointed to the President's Advisory Committee on the Arts, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — by President Barack Obama and President Joseph R. Biden
- President's Advisory Board, Healthcare Committee, and National Finance Committee
- Former Honorary Consul of Jamaica in Los Angeles
- Chief Executive Officer, AFC Management Company
- Chief Financial Officer, AFC Medical Group — maternal healthcare, East Los Angeles
- Nurse practitioner and midwife
- Olympic-qualifying sprinter — competed alongside Florence Griffith Joyner, Evelyn Ashford, and Alice Brown
- Conferred as a Queen Mother in Ghana
- Essayist, UN Foundation for Women and Girls
- Recipient, "7 Wonder Women" Award — Investing in Women
- Recipient, Sino-Phil Asia International Peace Award
- Author, My Mother, My Champion
- Host, Live With Lorna
- Speaker on women, girls, and finance
- Partner to three-time Olympic medalist Alice Brown on athlete development
LMJ Global Foundation invests in the health, education, sports, and leadership potential of youth, starting with girls, and starting in the United States, the Caribbean (Jamaica), and Africa. We build the resilience that turns raw talent into opportunity, and opportunity into limitless leadership.
A world where no girl's potential is bounded by where she is born; where the sky has no limit.
Lorna Mae Johnson built the LMJ Global Foundation, formerly Compassion for Teen Life, to do at scale what she had been doing one girl at a time: see the whole girl, understand what stands between her and her potential, and create the opportunity for her to lead.
For Johnson, seeing the whole girl means understanding that health affects education; education shapes opportunity; confidence influences choices; and access can determine whether talent is discovered or lost. That insight became Compassion for Teen Life and, today, the LMJ Global Foundation.
Johnson brings an unusual combination of experience to this work: nurse practitioner and nurse-midwife, healthcare executive and entrepreneur, Olympic-qualifying sprinter, philanthropist, author, and public servant. Her service includes two presidential appointments to the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts at the Kennedy Center and serving as Honorary Consul of Jamaica in Los Angeles.
Because when a girl is truly seen, heard, supported, and given access, the sky has no limit.
Four pillars.
One pathway.
Health, education, sport, and leadership are not separate programs. They are stages of the same journey — and a girl can fall out at any one of them.
Where the work happens.
Programs are grounded in three regions, each with its own partners and its own pathway.
Identify. Invest. Connect. Launch.
A young person should not need the right ZIP code, surname, or passport to reach the room where decisions are made.
Start a conversation.
Partnership, sponsorship, media, or a question about the work — write to us and we will respond.
- Email info@lmjglobal.com
- Phone 202-556-8202
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Mailing address
910 N. Crescent Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210