Johns, R. Elizabeth

Ruth Elizabeth "Betty" Johns was born September 13, 1911 to Rev. Benjamin Murley and Louise (Powell) Johns in Factoryville, Pennsylvania. Johns attended Wyoming Seminary, a Methodist boarding school in Kingston, Pennsylvania, and earned a B.A. from Goucher College in 1932. After college, Johns spent the summer of 1933 studying educational psychology and secondary education at Harvard, then took a job as a caseworker for the Baltimore Emergency Relief Commission (1933-34) and the Baltimore Family Welfare Association (1934-37). She took a semester's leave in the fall of 1935 to study at the New York School of Social Work. Johns was a Resident Fellow in sociology at Mount Holyoke College from 1937 to 1939, earning an M.A. in 1939. Her thesis was titled "A Changing Philosophy of Social Work." She taught sociology at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, from 1939 to 1941.

In 1941 Johns took the job of Executive Director at the University of Minnesota YWCA. She moved to the national YWCA staff in 1943. Headquartered in Boston, Johns worked with college students in the New England region. From her days at Antioch through her years working for the Student YWCA, Johns took advantage of the academic calendar to do further graduate study at various summer schools. Later, she directed summer Leadership Schools for the Student YWCA and led European Study Seminars for the Student YM/YWCA.

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