NC REAL Announces New Executive Director
Dr. Tony E. Johnson has been named Executive Director of Rural Entrepreneurship through Action Learning (NC REAL). Johnson brings over 20 years experience leading entrepreneurial development initiatives in the public and not-for-profit arenas to the organization.
Johnson comes to NC REAL from the Smoky Mountain Development Corporation in Waynesville, NC where he served as Executive Director. In that role he managed a Certified Development Company offering SBA 504 loans in the westernmost NC counties, and revitalized North Carolina’s first publicly funded small business incubator. Johnson also served as Regional Director of the Small Business and Technology Development Center at Winston-Salem State University. While there, he was a founding committee member of the Triad Entrepreneurship Initiative (TEI), and co-chaired the Education and the Business Plan Competition Committees.
Johnson is no stranger to NC REAL. Tony attended his first REAL Institute in 1991 while serving as Small Business Center Director at Western Piedmont Community College, and taught REAL’s first community college continuing education course later that year. In his role as Associate Director of NC REAL (1992-1998), he coauthored the REAL Curriculum Guide and authored the REAL Entrepreneurship Workbook. He also directed the first national REAL Institute for post-secondary instructors and facilitated at numerous institutes and in-service training sessions. Tony earned a Doctor of Education degree from NC State focusing on entrepreneurship education in 1995, and also has MBA and MPA degrees from Western Carolina University.