Vice President
Lake Research Partners

Rick Johnson is a Vice President at Lake Research Partners, where he has designed, conducted and analyzed qualitative and quantitative public opinion research for a number of clients. He has worked with candidates at all levels of the political process as well as national organizations such as the AFL-CIO, Change To Win, American For Health Care, Herndon Alliance, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and National Immigration Forum.

Johnson currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, as well as the Policy Committee for Alianza, a national coalition dedicated to ending domestic violence in the Latino community and on the Minority Student Achievement Oversight Committee for Fairfax County Virginia. Johnson previously served on the Minnesota Chicano/Latino Affairs Council by appointment from Gov. Jesse Ventura, the Stillwater, MN Human Rights Commission, was elected to the IL District 65 School Board in 2001, and was awarded Amnesty International's 1989 Ralph J. Bunche Fellowship, where he worked toward the abolition of capital punishment, and to end torture practices worldwide.

Johnson joined LRP in 2004 after working for General Mills in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He also worked for Market Facts (now Synovate) creating new market research tools, managing their diary business and managing their joint ventures, and for the Gallup Organization. A native Chicagoan, he received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he was recognized as one of the top 100 graduating students. He did his graduate work in public policy at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy, and did graduate work at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.