Bridie Johnson (Two-spirit/She/They)

About this Speaker

Bridie Johnson, LMSW, LCSW, MFT, CAADC, QMHP, is Canadian Chippewa of the Garden River, First Nations, also known as Ketegaunseebee. This is an Ojibwa band located at Garden River #14 near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. Before so called Canada was a place it was called Turtle Island. Bridie is currently the Senior Director of Behavioral Health Department at Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. She also sits as the Social Justice Director at Fair Sky MI. Before that she was the clinical supervisor at American Indian Health and Family Services, in the city of Detroit. Bridie has been an advocate for homeless shelter services for youth in four counties across the state of Michigan. Bridie has supervised multiple community-based foster care and juvenile delinquency programs for youth as well as several different residential treatment centers in Michigan and Georgia. Bridie is the former Director of Programs at Ruth Ellis Center and served on the Board of Directors there for over ten years. Bridie had the honor of meeting Ruth Ellis, a Matriarch in the community. REC is an organization servicing LBGTQIA2-S homeless youth in Highland Park, Michigan. Bridie has an associate degree in Business Law from Delta, Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice from Saginaw Valley State University, and a master’s degree in Social Work from Wayne State University. She also received a post master's certificate in Marital and Family Studies at Wayne State in 2002. She most recently obtained a certificate in Addictions Studies from the University of Michigan's program in 2018. As well as her CAADC and is now working toward her CCS. In this certificate program she focused heavily on the co-occurring aspects that trauma and substance use disorder share. Bridie has taught undergraduate studies in the social work department at Saginaw Valley State University and is currently an active member of the state of Michigan’s Human Trafficking Task Force. She also currently sits on the Board of Directors as the Vice Chair for the Detroit Phoenix Center 2.0 a homeless youth organization and is also on the Motor City Pride Board in the city of Detroit.