As the Deputy City Administrator, Simone C. Johnson supports the City Administrator in overseeing the day-to-day operations of City departments and ensuring the goals, strategic initiatives and policy directives of the Mayor are implemented. She joined the Mayor’s Office in July 2022 after spending a year as Chief of Staff & Chief Operating Officer with the Baltimore City Health Department, a role which delivered to her a broad executive management portfolio.

Deputy City Administrator Johnson spent more than two decades as a dedicated public servant with Maryland state government. As Director of Economic Development with the Maryland Transit Administration’s (MTA) Purple Line light rail public-private partnership project, she led business impact mitigation efforts and workforce development and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) participation programs. She also served as Chief Marketing Officer for the MTA, a role where she directed the planning, development and implementation of the organization’s marketing strategies, communications and brand/rebranding management activities, and Chief of Staff, where she was principally responsible for assisting the Transit CEO/Administrator with the day-to-day management of the organization, the executive oversight of the CEO/Administrator’s Office, ensuring alignment across the senior management team, employing change management strategies and directing six administrative business units. 

From 2007 to 2012, Deputy Administrator Johnson served as Chief of Staff to Maryland’s Secretary of Housing and Community Development, where she directed the operations of the Office of the Secretary, provided a high-level of integration across the leadership team, aligned strategic planning with organizational performance, oversaw five offices and directed the Governor’s Annual Housing Conference. In 2001, her drive to influence the future of airport development and accommodate future air passenger growth resulted in her becoming the first head of Terminal Planning & Intermodal Development with the Maryland Aviation Administration, which led to her directing a framework titled the Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport Terminal Development Plan. Her past positions with the Maryland State Highway Administration and Maryland Department of Transportation are also a true testament to her love for transportation management and planning. She also held leadership roles during the Gov. Parris Glendening administration. 

Recognized as a relationship builder and a hyper-organized and entrepreneurial executive, on two occasions Simone has served as an Executive-on-Loan with the United Way of Central Maryland, where she directed the fundraising activities for a portfolio of large and complex entities for an annual planned giving campaign. Deputy Administrator Johnson is skilled in talent and workforce development, strategic visioning and planning, team building, organizational redesign, stakeholder engagement, policy development, legislative affairs, project development and delivery, transportation planning and management, program design and implementation, performance management and enhancing governance.

Simone is known for being highly analytical, bringing strategic business initiatives from vision to scale, optimizing efficiency and productivity within organizations, swift decision-making, and working jointly with stakeholders having different functional expertise and varying views respectfully and cooperatively toward a common goal.

A native of New Jersey, Deputy Administrator Johnson made Baltimore her home when she enrolled at Morgan State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Master’s degree in City & Regional Planning. She is a graduate of the Leadership Maryland Class of 2013, a member of New Psalmist Baptist Church and resides in Baltimore City with her husband and son.