Biography

Nancy Flake Johnson is an advocate, educator, coach, collaborator, strategist, and champion for closing the racial wealth gap, civic engagement, and the advancement of the Black community. She is also an advocate for unity, race relations and equity for all people.

Nancy became president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Atlanta in 2008. She has served as Vice President of Programs for the Detroit Urban League, led Howard University’s Small Business Development Center, operated an accounting and tax practice serving small businesses and non-profits and began her career as CPA with Arthur Andersen & Co. and Coopers & Lybrand, Big 8 CPA firms.

Nancy is a Howard University and DePaul University graduate with degrees in accounting and taxation respectively and has a passion for empowering people, small businesses, and communities and building bridges between diverse communities and stakeholders. She and her team operate the League’s economic advancement programing that focuses on empowering youth, adults, families and small business owners through economic mobility and entrepreneurship, and advocating for justice and equitable policies and legislation, public and private sector partnerships.

The League’s areas of focus are workforce development, entrepreneurship, youth and young adults, housing/ wealth building and social and racial justice. In 2020, in commemoration of its 100-year centennial, the League launched as a Financial Empowerment Center, an integrated economic mobility model to close the racial wealth gap developed by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). In response to the COVID 19 pandemic, the League shifted to a hybrid model that includes in-person and virtual programs and services. The League also created a fund to provide emergency financial assistance and renamed the center - the Financial Empowerment & Emergency Relief Center (FEERC). Since the COVID 19 pandemic, the League has raised $6 million for rent, mortgage payments, utilities, food, and other urgent needs of families and provided technical assistance and grants totaling $365,000 for small businesses.

Nancy’s community service includes serving on the WorkSource Atlanta Board, City of Atlanta Youth Entrepreneurship Council, Fifth Third Bank Advisory Board, the Business for America Advisory Council, the Racial Equity Advisory Council for the National Skills Coalition, the LISC Equitable Small Business Recovery Taskforce and the MAX Workforce Provider Council. Her most recent honors include being recognized by 2023 National Urban League Exemplary Service in Housing and Homeownership, the State of Georgia Martin Luther King, Jr. Advisory Council as the 2022 Rita J. Samuels Community Service Honoree, Georgia Trends Magazine as a 2022 Notable Georgian, 2021 Honoree as one of Atlanta’s 500 Most Powerful Leaders by Atlanta Magazine, the Atlanta Business Chronicle as one of 21 Women Who Mean Business for 2020, and as a 2020 Tenured Woman of Influence by the Atlanta Business League.