Public Affairs

"It's a new president; it's a new day"

The North 103.3 | By Lisa Johnson

Published December 18, 2019 at 10:04 AM CST

The email from University of Minnesota president Joan Gabel wasn't a complete surprise to UMD Chancellor Lendley Black, but he only had a couple of days notice before it landed in the inboxes of faculty and staff across campus.

December 4, Black announced $5.2 million dollars in budget cuts at UMD, including the loss of 29 staff and faculty positions, and program changes including merging the College of Liberal Arts and the School of Fine Arts.

With the campus still reeling from the reductions, no one expected an email a week and a half later from new University president Joan Gabel, simply titled, "New Financial Investment in UMD."

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Lisa Johnson

Lisa Johnson started her broadcast career anchoring the television news at her high school and spinning country music at KWWK/KOLM Radio in Rochester, Minnesota. She was a reporter and news anchor at KTHI in Fargo, ND (not to mention the host of a children's program called "Lisa's Lane") and a radio reporter and anchor in Moorhead, Bismarck, Wahpeton and Fergus Falls.Since 1991, she has hosted Northland Morning on KUMD. One of the best parts of her job includes "paying it forward" by mentoring upcoming journalists and broadcasters on the student news team that helps produce Northland Morning. She also loves introducing the different people she meets in her job to one another, helping to forge new "community connections" and partnerships.Lisa has amassed a book collection weighing over two tons, and she enjoys reading, photography, volunteering with Animal Allies Humane Society and fantasizing about farmland. She goes to bed at 8pm, long before her daughter, two cats, or three dogs.

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