ANN ARBOR—University of Michigan President Lee C. Bollinger has selected Chacona W. Johnson to be his chief of staff. Johnson will also be named associate vice president for development, pending approval of the Board of Regents at its meeting this week.

The appointment will be effective.

“I am really very happy that Chacona Johnson is willing to take on the responsibilities of chief of staff and associate vice president for development. Through her years of service in development, Chacona has longstanding relations with our most significant contributors. But she is also a wise and tactful diplomat of the first order,” said Bollinger.

“Chacona Johnson is an outstanding professional who has played an invaluable management role for the University during the Campaign for Michigan,” said Thomas C. Kinnear, U-M vice president for development. “She has worked closely with, and earned the respect of, a wide range of members of the University community. She is extremely well-organized, smart and hard working. I’m pleased that Chacona is accepting this new leadership position with President Bollinger. She will serve him and Michigan very well.”

In the role of chief of staff, Johnson will advise the president on a wide range of issues, both internal and external to the U-M. She will be responsible for coordinating issues among senior officials and the president and will be involved in communication and policy development. She will have administrative oversight for the president’s office, the President’s House and Inglis House.

As associate vice president for development, she will continue to be responsible for principal gifts, working directly on behalf of the president with donors. She will work closely with the president on solicitation of principal gifts.

Johnson, who received her M.A. degree in public administration from the Ohio State University and her B.A. in business administration from Saint

In 1984, she was named area director for the Campaign for Michigan at U-M. She left U-M to serve as director of grants and development for university libraries at Wayne State University in 1986, and was a consultant to the Hudson-Webber Foundation from 1987-90. She returned to U-M as regional director of the major gifts program in 1987 and was named senior associate director for major gifts in 1992. She was named director of principal gifts at U-M in 1994.