Lynne Johnson

Lynne Johnson is the former Executive Director of the Midwest Access Project - an organization that envisions a society in which every person has access to comprehensive, high quality, patient-centered sexual and reproductive health care in their community. Previously, she served as policy director for Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, where she led the End Demand Illinois campaign, which worked to transform Illinois’ response to prostitution and sex trafficking. In that capacity, Lynne had led the passage of six legislative initiatives in as many years, including policy victories to de-felonize prostitution, reform the state’s human trafficking laws, and create meaningful penalties against exploiters. Lynne created a Litigation Guide to assist attorneys representing survivors of prostitution in petitions to vacate prior prostitution convictions and co-authored a policy proposal entitled, “Statewide System of Specialized Services for Survivors of Prostitution and Trafficking.” Lynne has appeared in online articles through TIME magazine and MSNBC, and has been interviewed frequently by Chicago’s television, radio, and print media outlets.

Lynne has been working in the violence against women movement for over 18 years. As an attorney in Maryland, Lynne represented battered women in Protective Order hearings and abused children in Baltimore City’s Juvenile Court system. Since relocating to Chicago in 1999, Lynne managed domestic violence and rape crisis programs and has advocated for improved community responses to violence against women. Lynne holds her 40 Hour Crisis Intervention certifications in both domestic violence and sexual assault.

As Program Officer and later Director of Advocacy with Chicago Foundation for Women, Lynne worked in its program areas of violence against women and girls and reproductive health.

Johnson holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Baltimore’s School of Law.

Sub-specialties: Rape Culture, Prostitution, Sex Trafficking, and Commercial Sexual Exploitation.