Campus News

Johansen, social scientist, will speak at annual PSO meeting

Bob Johansen, Distinguished Fellow of the Institute for the Future, will be the featured speaker at UGA’s 20th annual Public Service and Outreach Meeting and Awards Luncheon on April 12 from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. on the fifth floor of the Tate Student Center.

Johansen will present a workshop, “Leadership Makes the Future,” during the event. In his workshop, Johansen will focus on 10 future leadership skills that he says are enduring.

Leaders need an emerging set of skills uniquely suited for coping with the challenges-volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity-of the coming years. Johansen will use the latest Institute for the Future forecasts to help attendees see the connections in the larger systems of which they are a part, embrace shared assets and opportunities and cut through the chaos to make a better future. The workshop will provide attendees with tools, examples and advice to help develop their expertise in these future skills.

As a 30-year veteran forecaster exploring the human side of new technologies, Johansen works with senior corporate executives across a range of industries.

He is one of the first social scientists to study the human and organizational impacts of communication and computing technologies.

The author of six books, he earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of
Illinois and his doctorate from Northwestern University.

In addition to Johansen’s workshop, the event will feature the vice president’s traditional State of Public Service and Outreach address as well as the Staff Awards for Excellence, Scholarship of Engagement Award and Walter Barnard Hill Awards and Fellow presentation ceremony.