Johna Edmonds

Johna Edmonds is a graduate of North Carolina State University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting with a concentration on Financial Analysis and a minor in Spanish Language and Literature and a Masters of Accounting degree at North Carolina State University's Poole College of Management. Johna is an ambitious, multi-talented, and versatile young woman who is no stranger to hard work or perseverance. The Lumberton North Carolina native learned early in life that humility, positivity, and determination would take her on the highest road. Growing up the daughter of a teacher and a Special Forces Army veteran meant two things: a push toward higher education, and the use of her talents to serve others. Johna served her home state as the 76th Miss North Carolina in 2013, and spent her year of service promoting her personal platform--Readers to Leaders: Promoting Literacy in America's Youth throughout the state. Johna believes strongly in her fight to end illiteracy in North Carolina and abroad. She serves on the Board of Directors for Communities in Schools of North Carolina, the leading dropout-prevention program in the country whose mission is to surround students with a community of support that will empower them to stay in school and achieve in life. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Helps Education Fund, a national non-profit organization committed to supporting educators and improving students' early literacy skills. Using her personal battle with literacy in elementary school as a catalyst, she has issued a statewide call to action, urging North Carolina's education leaders to take a proactive approach in the eradication of illiteracy. Realizing the importance of expanding the reach of her passion for literacy, Johna created and designed interactive English as a Foreign Language lesson plans that were used when she taught English in the Dominican Republic on an Alternative Spring Break trip with NC State's Center for Student Leadership, Ethics and Public Service, and when she studied abroad for a semester in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at a Spanish-language intensive university. To prepare for a career in corporate business, Johna has worked as a Tax Intern for KPMG Raleigh and was one of 10 students nationwide selected for the KPMG Global Internship Program, which took her to work in Paris, France with some of the firm's largest and best-known clients. Johna is co-Starring in Avondale Pictures' new film, "Shake Off the World", directed by Chuck Williams, that will be in theaters in June 2015.