Raised in a "conservative, pro-life family," Johnson began volunteering for Planned Parenthood after seeing their booth at a volunteer fair at her college. She says she hadn't heard of the group before and didn't know they performed abortions, and Planned Parenthood told her they wanted to reduce the number of abortions. Johnson volunteered in 2001, and progressed to the position of community services Director. Identifying as "extremely pro-choice," she worked at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas for eight years, escorting women into the clinic from their cars to prevent them from being heckled by protesters and eventually working as Director of the clinic. Johnson regularly encountered Activists from Coalition for Life, a local anti-abortion group who waited at the clinic's fence to talk to clients, and described extensive harassment of clinic staff by anti-abortion Activists. Describing death threats against herself and her family, she stated: "It's very scary, this group of people that claim to be these peaceful prayer warriors, or whatever they call themselves, it's kind of ironic that some of them would be sending death threats." The Planned Parenthood clinic named Johnson employee of the year in 2008.