Cathleen Johnson earned her Ph.D. in Economics from Virginia Tech in 2000, worked for Kollmorgan (on the prototype for what is now known as the Segway), did a post-doctoral fellowship with Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith in 2001, and contracted with the Canadian government through the non-profit Social Research Demonstration Corporation and CIRANO to do multi-million dollar experimental and field studies on attitudes toward risk. She also directed the experimental economics laboratory at CIRANO, a consortium of universities in Montreal.  She worked as academic director for BASIS charter school system. At the University of Arizona, she has been Director of the Office for Economic Education. In the Economics Department, she taught Law & Economics, Microeconomics, Managerial Economics, Experimental Economics, and Basic Principles. She now teaches Experimental Economics in the Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law program, directs the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Network, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Arizona Council for Economic Education.