Jen Cullerton Johnson

Jen Cullerton Johnson

Jen Cullerton Johnson is an award-winning children’s author, educator, and environmental advocate. She teaches at Chicago Public Schools and has been an adjunct instructor at Wilbur Wright College, City Colleges of Chicago. With nearly two decades of teaching experience, she’s worked with incarcerated youth and urban classrooms; taught abroad in Japan, Ecuador, and Argentina; and led nature-writing workshops in outdoor settings.

Jen is a certified TreeKeeper for the city of Chicago, where she volunteers to care for and advocate for urban trees. She has planted trees in Kenya with the Green Belt Movement, and in 2025, she began a Forest Therapy Guide training. Her short stories and essays have been recognized with numerous awards and honors, including grants from the Illinois Arts Council; an ambassador’s award to study writing in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; and a teacher travel study with other educators from the Morton Arboretum (2025) to further her studies on trees and biodiversity in Mexico.

Jen is the author of The Story of Environmentalist Wangari Maathai. Her award-winning picture book Seeds of Change has been a bestseller for over a decade. She is an experienced presenter, sharing her expertise at conferences and professional development workshops across the United States and abroad, including presentations for the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE), the Children’s Literature Association (ChLA), the Green Schools National Network, and the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE).

Jen earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature and Spanish language from Indiana University, a master’s degree in education from Loyola University Chicago, and a master of fine arts in creative writing from the University of New Orleans.