Meet Dr. Farid Johnson

The story behind the work

Dr. Farid Johnson has spent more than thirteen years in educational leadership, including nine as a building principal, and currently serves as an elementary school administrator in New York’s Hudson Valley. In 2024, the School Administrators Association of New York State named him the New York State Elementary Principal of the Year, recognition of a career built on one conviction: relationships change outcomes.

But the resume only tells half the story. Farid’s path to the principal’s office ran through adversity most leadership books never mention. Those early struggles didn’t just shape him. They became his purpose. Today, they fuel everything he does: the way he leads a school, coaches an educator, prepares a job seeker for the interview that could change their life, or fires up a gymnasium full of kids at a school assembly.

His leadership is grounded in more than experience. Farid earned his doctorate in Executive Leadership from St. John Fisher University, where his dissertation research examined how the quality of teacher-student relationships shapes the implementation of restorative practices in elementary schools. The finding at the heart of that research is the finding at the heart of his life: closeness is what moves people. Earlier in his career, Farid supervised special education programs in the Bronx, work that taught him to see every child’s potential, especially the ones the system overlooks.

Farid co-hosts the Everyday a Better You podcast and is currently writing his first book, Every Day a Better You: Lessons on Turning Adversity Into Purpose. He is a husband and a proud father, and he still believes the best part of any school day is the moment a kid realizes they’re capable of more than they thought.