Willa Johnson is the daughter of a retired middle school teacher and coal truck driver, Willa Johnson grew up and has returned to her home community in Letcher County. She has served as an Appalachian Transition Fellow, is a co-founder of the Stay Together Appalachian Youth Project (STAY), and is a licensed foster parent. Willa recently worked for the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative (KVEC) Community Engagement team where she created FIREshare, a program designed in collaboration with The Holler to train teachers and students to use multimedia tools to tell their own stories about their schools and communities. She participated in the Appalachian Media Institute as a youth intern in 2007, worked as Lead Educator in 2015, and is now serving as the Interim Director.