Laura D. Johnston is an experienced planner and consultant in strategic and crisis communication, currently serving with CACI International as Public Affairs and Strategic Communication Analyst for Program Executive Office, Aircraft Carriers, Naval Sea Systems Command.Prior to joining CACI, Laura was as a senior instructor (Lewis-Price & Associates contractor) with the Department of Defense, teaching U.S. Government national security policy and interagency coordination. As a lead instructor on the Advanced Studies team at the Defense Information School (DINFOS) from 2008-2019, Laura developed and served as faculty lead for the Joint Senior Public Affairs Course. The course provided a capstone experience for senior communication leaders within the Department of Defense and other USG agencies, as well as foreign militaries, focusing on interagency coordination and aligning information and operational lines of effort in a deployed environment. Laura was also a senior instructor for the Joint Intermediate and Joint Contingency courses and regularly advised the School's commandant and senior leadership on outreach opportunities.Prior to joining DINFOS, Laura was Conference Group Director and a Senior Executive Staff member at the U.S. Naval Institute in Annapolis. From 1992-2005, she was Corporate Communications Director and a Senior Associate at KCI Technologies, Inc., ranked among the top consulting engineering firms in the country, and served on the corporation's Board of Directors. From 1983-89, Laura was an Associate Editor of the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings and Naval History magazines and wrote articles for military publications.Laura is a 2011 Distinguished Graduate of the U.S. Naval War College, where she earned a master's degree in National Security and Strategic Studies. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from the University of Colorado. In 1989, Laura became the first civilian journalist to graduate from U.S. Army Airborne School.