Biography

A self-proclaimed “Jersey girl gone Texan”, Courtney “CJ” Cross-Johnson moved to Dallas in the summer of 2015 after living in Houston for four years. She is a former teacher and campus instructional coach that currently works for a local education nonprofit but considers herself to be an educator for life. CJ’s personal passion for community engagement and the liberation of Black people, in particular Black women and girls, drives her philanthropic and community involvement in Dallas and beyond. She is heavily active in the National Urban League Young Professionals movement with over 11,000 young professionals in which she is the first and only Ms. NULYP and recently served as the Chief of Staff for the Dallas-Fort Worth Urban League Young Professionals, a national award-winning chapter. She is a member of other organizations including Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc, Junior League of Dallas, Mayor’s Star Council, and is a founding member of HERitage Giving Fund. CJ is also a proud University of Miami graduate.

 Currently, CJ is slowly getting back into the online world of blogging in which she is converting her previous travel lifestyle website, Thirty30Courtney, into a hub that is more lifestyle-focused and a place to gain resources on how to be involved in the local DFW community. She has also officially begun her entrepreneurial journey of a digital marketing consulting company, 21Twelve Creative Co., in which her focus is amplifying the stories and brand of businesses owned by people of color. She loves to travel and has been to 25 countries, be in the company of strong women, and get her peers excited about voting.  She is also on a mission to read 50 books in 2021 after accomplishing her goal of reading 40 books in 2020. Her personal mantra that has carried her throughout her journey is simple- "Be bold. Be brilliant. Be brave."  Her “big girl dream” is to be a professional philanthropist, owner of a Black women’s safe space that sells tea, candles, and books, and the manager of a scholarship foundation in honor of her late godfather, Jerome A. Johnson.