The Skirball Cultural Center has announced Leslie K. Johnson as its new executive vice president. (photo by Ramona Trent/courtesy of Leslie K. Johnson)

The Skirball Cultural Center has announced the appointment of cultural leader Leslie K. Johnson as its new executive vice president.

Johnson will oversee the full range of the Skirball’s exhibitions, programs and day-to-day operations, including a $22 million budget and nearly 400 full-time and on-call staff. At the Skirball, Johnson succeeds Kathryn Girard, who served as chief of staff and then executive vice president from 2005 through her retirement on June 30.

“I am honored to join the Skirball community, one that is guided by a core belief that arts and culture have the capacity to transform and uplift,” Johnson said. “In this moment, when our world may seem disparate and irrevocably divided, the role cultural organizations can and should play as community centers…is more essential and critical than ever.”

She joins the Skirball from Center Theatre Group, where she most recently held the position of director of social strategy, innovation and impact and served as the organization’s chief diversity officer — a role in which she prioritized community building both internally and externally.

Following a national search conducted by Morris & Berger, Johnson was selected by the Skirball’s new president and CEO, Jessie Kornberg, whose tenure began on July 1.

“Leslie K. Johnson is an inspiring, collaborative leader who has already distinguished herself as a person of integrity, empathy and passion for our work,” said Kornberg. “I am grateful to have Leslie by my side — a seasoned arts administrator with a deep commitment to mission fulfillment and fiscal responsibility —as the Skirball looks ahead to a new chapter of community engagement in the pursuit of a more just society.”

Johnson brings three decades of experience in arts education, nonprofit management and cultural leadership. In addition to having served as CTG’s director of social strategy, innovation and impact, she has also led school programming at the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County, she served as the board of chair of the California Alliance for Arts Education and much more.

In support of public-health efforts to slow and contain the spread of COVID-19, the Skirball remains temporarily closed.

For information, visit skirball.org.