Stephanie Johanns (formerly Armitage) is an American politician and businessperson. She is a former first lady of Nebraska and member of the

Nebraska Legislature The Nebraska Legislature (also called the Unicameral) is the legislature of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The Legislature meets at the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln. With 49 members, known as "senators", the Nebraska Legislature is the small ...

. Johanns was a

county commissioner A county commission (or a board of county commissioners) is a group of elected officials (county commissioners) collectively charged with administering the county government in some states of the United States; such commissions usually comprise ...

for Lancaster County.

Early life and education

Johanns is from Arizona. She graduated from high school in

Elkhart, Indiana Elkhart ( ) is a city in Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. The city is located east of South Bend, Indiana, east of Chicago, Illinois, and north of Indianapolis, Indiana. Elkhart has the larger population of the two principal cities of th ...

and completed a degree in psychology at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

in 1977. She married Mike Armitage. They divorced in 1985 with no children. She married Mike Johanns on December 24, 1986. She is a Republican and a conservative Catholic.

Career

In 1985, Johanns was a part-time manager of the Greater Lincoln Private Industry Council. She left the post on November 25, 1985 to work as the information center coordinator at Lincoln Telephone Company. In that role, she oversaw three employees supporting the internal computer users. Johanns was a

for Lancaster County. Nebraska governor

Kay A. Orr Kay Avonne Orr (née Stark; January 2, 1939) is an American politician who served as the 36th governor of Nebraska from 1987 to 1991. A member of the Republican Party, she was the state's first and to date only female governor. Early life and e ...

appointed Johanns to the

to fill the Bill Harris' vacancy when he became the mayor of Lincoln. She served from 1987 to 1988 and did not run for reelection. In 1998, the Girls Scouts presented Johanns the spirit of girl scout award. Johanns, the wife of

Mike Johanns Michael Owen Johanns ( ; born June 18, 1950) is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States Senator from Nebraska from 2009 to 2015. He served as the 38th governor of Nebraska from 1999 until 2005, and was chair of the Mi ...

, was the

First Lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...

of Nebraska from 1999 to 2005. Johanns was the honorary chair of the Nebraska Volunteer Service Commission. She was awarded the 2001 leader in communication honor by the Lincoln chapter of the

International Association of Business Communicators The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) is a global network of communications professionals. Each summer, IABC hosts a World Conference, a three-day event with professional development seminars and activities, as well as t ...

. In 2004, she was the vice president of external affairs for

Alltel Alltel Wireless was a wireless service provider, primarily based in the United States. Before acquisitions by Verizon Wireless and AT&T, it served 34 states and had approximately 13 million subscribers. As a regulatory condition of the acquisition ...

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

. Johanns is a senior vice president at

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johanns, Stephanie Women state legislators in Nebraska 20th-century American women politicians 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century American businesswomen 21st-century American businesspeople Businesspeople from Nebraska Verizon Communications people Alltel People from Lancaster County, Nebraska Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American politicians Nebraska Republicans Catholics from Nebraska University of Minnesota alumni People from Arizona 20th-century American politicians First Ladies and Gentlemen of Nebraska