Cherie Johnston

Cherie Johnston holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, with a dual emphasis in International Business and Economics, plus a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a concentration in International Business from Chapman University. During her studies, Cherie completed extensive travel courses to both Mexico and Brazil, while also obtaining the equivalency of a minor in Arabic.

For the past eleven years, Cherie has worked as an Analyst for Panasonic Avionics, specifically in the industry of Aerospace. In this capacity, Cherie has developed her continuing expertise in the arena of Global Business. Further, Cherie has led the Veterans Business Impact Program for all the Panasonic North American companies for over 2 years. Prior to joining Panasonic, Cherie worked within International Operations for several companies, specializing in the import and export of goods worldwide. Closer to the start of Cherie’s career, she spent almost a year interning with the U.S. Department of Commerce, and a second-year interning for Congressman Ed Royce during his tenure as Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade.

In 2010, Cherie co-founded Military Children’s Charity (MCC) with her son Isaiah, to acknowledge and recognize the repeated sacrifices of U.S. Military Children. Now, nearly fifteen years later, Cherie remains the organization’s volunteer Chief Executive Officer. To date, MCC has distributed around 140,000 gifts of appreciation to U.S. Military Families, led a bereavement program which served over 3 dozen families and MCC has received over thirty individual recognitions from the Department of Defense (DoD). Further, in this capacity, Cherie and Isaiah resettled 17 VIP Afghans into the United States following our nation’s withdraw from Afghanistan.

As the former spouse of a Retired U.S. Marine, Cherie has spent over three decades around the DoD, and through her non-profit activities, she has worked in close support of every branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. Cherie has been a Community Partner to the U.S. Army for 6 years. Further, Cherie has volunteered for countless other organizations, having served 4 years on the board of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Katuktu Chapter, and a year as the STEM Program Director for the Orange County Chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Lastly, for 6 years, Cherie has been a member of the Space Propulsion Synergy Team (SPST), (sponsored by NASA), where she participated in the composition of a long-term national space plan which she then presented to members of Congress and the U.S. Government.

Cherie is originally from California, but has also lived in Colorado, Nevada, and Michigan. She currently resides in the Washington DC area, and her family maintains a ranch in the California desert.