Eddie Bernice Johnson

Broader Impacts Champion

Former Chair of the House Science Committee

Eddie Bernice Johnson represented Texas’s 30th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1993 until her retirement in 2023. In December 2010, Johnson became the first African American and the first female Ranking Member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. From 2000 to 2002, she was the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Research and Science Education. Johnson has been a strong advocate of investing in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. In 2012, she introduced the Broadening Participation in STEM Education Act, which would authorize the Director of the National Science Foundation to award grants to increase the number of students from underrepresented minority groups receiving STEM degrees. The bill would also expand the number of faculty members from underrepresented minority groups at colleges and universities.