Georgia Southern University Athletics

Responsibilities: Johnston has direct oversight of the athletics communications office at Georgia Southern as the Senior Associate Athletics Director for Communications.

As a member of the Athletics Executive Staff, Johnston oversees the strategic communications team and serves as the primary point of contact for all executive-level communications, including Director of Athletics Chris Davis and football head coach Clay Helton. He also oversees strategic messaging plans to maximize brand awareness and organizational initiatives while also serving as liaison with university communications.

In his current role as a member of the External Leadership Team, he works with the external relations team in making sure his area is synced up with the athletics marketing, GATA Productions, creative services and athletics ticketing departments to best tell the Georgia Southern story, drive revenue and ticket sales/attendance and ensures everything is on brand.

He also heads up the media relations for the football squad, traveling with the team and taking care of all media requests, as well as rifle and men's golf.

In June of 2020, he was given sport supervisor roles of the nationally-ranked rifle squad and was one of the lead members of the search committee that identified and hired head coach Soren Butler in 2023, who was named the national coach of the year just a year later.

Joined GS Athletics Staff: August, 2015

Prior to Georgia Southern: Johnston spent 16 years at Virginia Tech as the football, wrestling and softball SID. He was elevated to director of content strategy in 2014. He went to Tech in 1999 as an intern following graduation from college and was made a full-time employee in 2000.

Education: University of South Carolina, 1999 (B.S. in sport administration); Georgia Southern University, 2023 (M.S. in sport management)

Of Note: Spanning his career, Johnston has coordinated media efforts prior to and on-site for 23 college football bowl games including the 1999 BCS National Championship, the Orange Bowl three times, the Gator Bowl three times, the Sugar Bowl twice and the Chick-fil-A Bowl twice … He has been the SID for over 110 players who have gone on to the NFL … Johnston has been an active member of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA, now CSC) for years, and he also is an active member of the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) … The National Wrestling Media Association named him the National Wrestling S.I.D. of the Year in 2014 … He has worked with USA Softball and the NPF on several occasions … The 2015 Virginia Tech football media guide was judged as second best in the country by CoSIDA.

Personal: A native of Chesapeake, Virginia, Johnston and his wife, Katy Baker, have too many dogs and live in Pooler.