{"id":1205,"date":"2019-11-18T16:38:24","date_gmt":"2019-11-18T16:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/?p=1205"},"modified":"2025-02-07T11:20:19","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T16:20:19","slug":"dr-richard-johnson-employing-a-no-nonsense-attitude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/2019\/11\/18\/dr-richard-johnson-employing-a-no-nonsense-attitude\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Richard Johnson:  Employing a No-Nonsense Attitude"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.kadence-column1205_62474a-c0 > .kt-inside-inner-col{padding-right:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-bottom:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-left:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);}.kadence-column1205_62474a-c0 > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column1205_62474a-c0 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column1205_62474a-c0 > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(--global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column1205_62474a-c0 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column1205_62474a-c0 > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column1205_62474a-c0 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column1205_62474a-c0{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column1205_62474a-c0 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 991px){.kadence-column1205_62474a-c0 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column1205_62474a-c0 dynamic-main-col\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\"><style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1205_4667ad-fe, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1205_4667ad-fe[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1205_4667ad-fe\"]{font-size:1.5rem;line-height:30px;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-family:proxima-nova;color:#808080;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1205_4667ad-fe mark.kt-highlight, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1205_4667ad-fe[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1205_4667ad-fe\"] mark.kt-highlight{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1205_4667ad-fe img.kb-inline-image, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1205_4667ad-fe[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1205_4667ad-fe\"] img.kb-inline-image{width:150px;vertical-align:baseline;}<\/style>\n<p class=\"kt-adv-heading1205_4667ad-fe wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1205_4667ad-fe\">In 1988, Richard Johnson received both his bachelor\u2019s degree from Norfolk State University and his second lieutenant\u2019s gold bar from the Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"741\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.test.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/johnson-at-graduation-wilmu-1024x741-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15044\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/johnson-at-graduation-wilmu-1024x741-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/johnson-at-graduation-wilmu-1024x741-1-250x181.jpg 250w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/johnson-at-graduation-wilmu-1024x741-1-663x480.jpg 663w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/johnson-at-graduation-wilmu-1024x741-1-768x556.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>By that time he had already served eight years of active duty as a helicopter weapons repairman. When he transitioned from enlisted man to officer that year, Johnson says, \u201cI was pretty much the oldest lieutenant in the world, and my tolerance for a lot of nonsense was low.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This no-nonsense attitude apparently served him well. Working in military intelligence, he climbed through the ranks and exited the Army in 2012 as a major after a 23-year career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His work ethic has carried over to his civilian endeavors, especially his side business, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HTD703\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hit the Deck Entertainment<\/a>, which was incorporated 12 years ago in Johnson\u2019s hometown of Orange, Virginia. Hit the Deck is an event and party planning company, with most of its jobs in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. The company provides audio and video support, photography and catering services, and also conducts various philanthropic events throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through his business, Johnson says, \u201cI had been working with some guys who were ex-convicts, and we had conversations about how they were having struggles with getting jobs and getting a foot in the door with their criminal records.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Their records didn\u2019t faze him. Johnson employs about eight people, most of them technicians and sound engineers, and his hiring philosophy can be distilled into two factors: are they hard-working and are they trustworthy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI hire people from the neighborhood, people I can trust,\u201d he says, \u201cand I would say that about 80 percent of them have drug convictions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No matter. \u201cThese are some of the hardest-working and trustworthy people I know,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This success with hiring ex-convicts while other employers shunned them would provide the spark for his thesis when he enrolled in Wilmington University\u2019s Doctor of Business Administration program in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full size-medium wp-image-1207\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.test.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Maj-Johnson-Tuskegee-Airman22-446x446-300x300-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15045\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Maj-Johnson-Tuskegee-Airman22-446x446-300x300-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Maj-Johnson-Tuskegee-Airman22-446x446-300x300-1-250x250.jpg 250w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Maj-Johnson-Tuskegee-Airman22-446x446-300x300-1-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>On June 24, 2017, Dr. Johnson was a guest speaker in his hometown of Orange, Virginia. At the event, a historical marker was placed in honor of Capt. Richard Maples, a Tuskegee Airman who was lost at sea during combat. Maples was from Orange.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Near the end of his Army career, Johnson had earned a master\u2019s degree online from International American University. But as he settled into civilian life \u2014 he holds a full-time position in Washington, D.C., as a management analyst in the Department of State, Consular Affairs, Passport Services \u2014 he found that his thirst for knowledge had not been slaked. That\u2019s when he began a search for accredited online programs and discovered WilmU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWilmington had the most flexible schedule as far as online and accredited programs,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cAnd they had a good reputation.\u201d Thus began a four-year journey that was both challenging and rewarding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOnline education has come a long way, and they are not giving away degrees,\u201d he says. \u201cIf anyone has any inclination that online degrees are easy, they\u2019re crazy. Not that it\u2019s super difficult, but the work never slowed down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The title of his dissertation was <em>Employer Willingness to Hire Individuals Convicted of Drug Crimes in Central Virginia<\/em>. In researching it, Johnson surveyed large and small employers throughout the Virginia counties of Orange, Madison, Culpeper, Nelson, Louisa and Albemarle, as well as the City of Charlottesville. He discovered that 53 percent of the respondents would be willing to hire people previously convicted of drug offenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He calls working on his doctorate \u201cone of the most rewarding experiences I\u2019ve had academically.\u201d He especially appreciated the efforts of Dr. Jason James, assistant professor in the DBA program, who was his committee chair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDr. James is a stickler for doing things right,\u201d says the newly-minted Dr. Johnson, \u201cand he helped make me a lot better writer. It was challenging but fulfilling and my writing skills greatly improved during the course of the program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Calling Dr. Johnson \u201cpassionate and committed,\u201d Dr. James says: \u201cI met Richard a number of times because he would prioritize coming to campus when he was in the area so that he could meet face-to-face with his dissertation committee \u2014 myself and Dr. John Sparco [director of the College of Business]. Richard was serious about helping people.&nbsp;I described his research work as being noble and forthright.&nbsp;While working with Richard, I noticed that he exhibited tenacity, discipline, and he remained interested in continuous improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Johnson again drove north to Wilmington last January to don his tam, and was impressed by the ceremony, calling it \u201cbetter than some military functions I\u2019ve been a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reflecting on his four years at WilmU, he says, \u201cI chose to pursue my doctorate because, as clich\u00e9 as it sounds, I have been on a lifelong quest for knowledge of business, group dynamics, and other organizational concepts.&nbsp;I believe that the DBA program was the best route to obtaining an understanding of a few business principles that directly impact things that I have always been interested in. And as I stated in my dissertation, I sought my doctorate to prove to the young people of my community that if I could achieve such a milestone, then so could they.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1988, Richard Johnson received both his bachelor\u2019s degree from Norfolk State University and his second lieutenant\u2019s gold bar from the Army. By that time&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":15044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[135],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":135,"label":"MAGAZINE"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/johnson-at-graduation-wilmu-1024x741-1-663x480.jpg",663,480,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Rebecca Slinger","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/author\/rebecca\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":135,"name":"MAGAZINE","slug":"magazine","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":692,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":431,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":135,"category_count":431,"category_description":"","cat_name":"MAGAZINE","category_nicename":"magazine","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1205"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15046,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205\/revisions\/15046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}