Patricia Koch Johns has been involved in education for over 40 years in Nebraska, as well as Arkansas, Georgia, and Missouri.  In 1972, she earned her degree in education from Kearney State College with an emphasis in theatre, English, and speech. She continued her education and earned a Masters Degree from the University of Arkansas with a degree in communications with an emphasis in theatre in 1974.  Koch Johns began her teaching career in Nebraska in 1976 at Cozad High School and remained there until she accepted a position at Lincoln High School in 2000.  In 2006, Koch Johns was named the Nebraska Teacher of the Year, and in 2012 she was honored with the Governor’s Excellence in Arts Education Award.

As a master teacher/leader, Koch Johns was an English department chairperson and created curriculum for 8th grade theatre and dramatic literature and established the new Lincoln Public Schools graduation requirements. She helped create, write, and evaluate state and national standards in fine arts. Koch Johns was also a lead writer for the original Nebraska Frameworks for the Visual and Performing Arts and served as an advisor for the creation of the NDE Language Arts Degree. She also directed the award-winning Poverty: Not a Choice with Nebraska Loves Public Schools.

Koch Johns is the recipient of numerous teaching awards such as the Nebraska Speech Communication and Theatre Association’s John Thurber Distinguished Teacher Award, the Time Warner Award, the Alltel Outstanding Educator Award, and the National Federation of Interscholatic School Activities Speech/Theatre Educator Award, to name a few.

Koch Johns has held leadership positions in the Nebraska Speech Communication and Theatre Association, Nebraska Thespians, Nebraska School Activities Association, Central Nebraska Forensic League, Nebraskans for the Arts, Lincoln Education Association, Cozad Education Association, Nebraska State Education Association, and the Angels Theatre Company. She has also served on numerous boards including the National Federation of High School Activities, the University of Nebraska at Kearney Fine Arts Advisory Board, and the Lincoln Public Schools Foundation. Koch Johns holds an International Baccalaureate teaching certificate and has participated in educational workshops at the Kennedy Center, the Buffet Institute for Early Childhood Education, Open Sky, and the Wesleyan Inclusive Education Institute.

Patsy Koch Johns hopes to work with issues of poverty, the achievement gap, AQuESTT (the new state assessment and evaluation process), and the implementation of the fine arts standards and early childhood education during her term as a Nebraska State Education Board member.

Her two adult children work in Nebraska public schools, and their children are strong products of the public educational system.  As a teacher, a mother, a grandmother, and now a Nebraska State Education Board member, Patricia Koch Johns hopes that her investments in education will benefit all families in Nebraska.