Deborah Johnson Spence, Ph.D.   Little did she know when nine-years of age, that she would champion the campaign against Woman-on-Woman Abuse? Yet at the age of nine, she stood there, chatting with a paraprofessional, hesitating to exit the school’s double doors, stalling as she awaited the safe haven of her mother’s presence. Though not known then, subtleties she noted as her eyes met a few other girls’ eyes were the beginning of her understanding of the hidden subculture of covert behaviors between females. Her mother, all too familiar with the morning preludes of “Momma can you pick me up from school today?” understood that another threat must have been issued the day before.   Little did youthful Deborah Johnson know that abusive behaviors between females, whether physical, verbal, or emotional, would become a central theme in her life, nor that she would later conduct a study that would quantitatively demonstrate that abuse between women was then, and continues to be, frightfully real today.

Ph.D. Leadership, Andrews University
Named Scholar Award
Founder CEO, Your Concerns, Inc.
M.A. Community Counseling, Andrews University
National Certified Licensed Professional Counselor
State of Michigan Disaster Relief
Operation Reach Back Award
M.A. Speech & Language Pathology
B.S. Education