Gladys Styles Johnston, the former chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Kearney, died on June 20 in Scottsdale, Arizona. She was 79 years old.
Dr. Johnston was a graduate of Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in social science. She held a master’s degree in educational administration from Temple University in Philadelphia and a Ph.D. in educational administration, curriculum development, and rural sociology from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
Dr. Johnston served as the second chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Kearney from 1993 to 2002. Previously, she was executive vice president and provost at DePaul University in Chicago. Earlier in her career, Dr. Johnston was dean of the College of Education at Arizona State University and chair of the department of management in the School of Business at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
After leaving the University of Nebraska-Kearney, Dr. Johnston served as assistant to the president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. There, she was the director of the association’s Millennium Leadership Initiative.