The digital economy loves to talk about innovation. It talks far less about access.

As artificial intelligence accelerates, tech valuations soar, and governments race toward digital transformation, one question sits uncomfortably beneath the headlines: Who is being prepared to participate—and who is being systematically left out?

Hermina Johnny is not interested in incremental change. She is interested in structural correction.

Born in Saint Lucia and shaped by years of living and working across the United States and Europe, Johnny has positioned herself at the intersection of education, economic strategy, and gender equity. As Founder and Executive Director of the Aspire Artemis Foundation, she is working to redesign the pipeline into science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM)—with a deliberate focus on girls and underrepresented communities.

And she is unapologetic about the stakes.

“Digital transformation without intentional inclusion doesn’t close gaps—it widens them.”

From Global Policy To Ground-Level Access

Johnny’s academic background spans international relations, economics, anthropology, and international law. She earned her undergraduate degree from Connecticut College and completed an LL.M. in International Law and International Relations in Brussels, later pursuing research in constitutionalism and fundamental rights.

But rather than remaining in policy circles, she moved toward execution.

Global development frameworks routinely articulate commitments to equity. Yet implementation often stalls at the structural level. Johnny saw that disconnect firsthand.

So she built an institution designed to close it.

Education As Economic Infrastructure

Through the Aspire Artemis Foundation, Johnny develops STEAM-focused leadership programs, global symposia, and digital literacy initiatives that go beyond exposure. The organization integrates arts into STEM disciplines—not as decoration, but as strategic design—training young people to think adaptively in a workforce defined by rapid change.

Her framing is deliberately economic.

STEAM education, she argues, is not a social side project. It is workforce architecture.

“If education isn’t treated as infrastructure, we shouldn’t be surprised when opportunity collapses under pressure.”

Under her leadership, the foundation has convened programming connected to international development discussions and United Nations–related venues, reinforcing a simple but disruptive thesis: innovation ecosystems that exclude women are economically inefficient.

The conversation, she insists, must shift from representation optics to structural preparation.

Encouragement is not a strategy. Infrastructure is.

Small States, Global Systems — And Female Leadership

Johnny’s work also challenges geographic bias in global innovation narratives. Participation in forums linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN General Assembly, and the ECOSOC Science, Technology and Innovation Forum places her within high-level policy discussions.

At the Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS4), debates centered on resilience and connectivity. For Johnny, the message was direct: small island nations cannot diversify their economies without digital capability.

And digital capability does not appear spontaneously. It is built—intentionally.

As a woman leader from a small island state, Johnny’s presence in these arenas disrupts two assumptions at once: that innovation leadership belongs to large economies, and that systems change is driven primarily by traditional power centers.

“Geography should not determine destiny. Neither should gender.”

Strategy Meets Execution

Before founding her nonprofit, Johnny built experience in business strategy and legal advisory work, including corporate and intellectual property matters. That foundation shapes her leadership style—analytical, cross-sector, and systems-focused.

But she refuses to operate solely at altitude.

She continues to teach and develop educational materials, maintaining direct engagement with learners. The result is rare: a leader equally fluent in boardroom strategy and classroom realities.

In conversations about women in technology, she pushes back against surface-level diversity narratives.

Representation without preparation, she argues, sets women up to enter systems that were never designed for them to succeed.

Structured pathways, market-aligned skills, mentorship networks, and institutional accountability are non-negotiable.

The Real Leadership Test

The digital economy disproportionately rewards early exposure and sustained access. Johnny’s work is built around intervening before exclusion calcifies into inevitability.

By positioning STEAM education as both an equity imperative and an economic growth strategy, she reframes inclusion not as charity—but as competitiveness.

In her view, the most dangerous myth in innovation culture is that talent naturally rises.

Talent rises when infrastructure supports it.

“The question isn’t whether women can lead in technology. The question is whether systems are willing to evolve fast enough to make room.”

In the expanding landscape of women in leadership, Hermina Johnny represents a category of leader that is increasingly impossible to ignore: not symbolic, not peripheral—but systemic.

She is not asking to be included in the digital economy.

She is helping decide who gets to build it.

The post Women In Leadership: Hermina Johnny Is Challenging Who Gets To Build The Digital Economy appeared first on Good News!.

Pause the World for Peace at

Noon Worldwide Celebrating the

Int Day of Peace 9/21/24 &

Times Square

Also here is a post for our great friend and performer Giorgia Fumanti

Giorgia Fumanti Closes the International Day of Peace Concert with her SPECIAL MELODIC VOICE, how lucky we are in Times Square, please join us on September 21, 2024

Still room for sponsors and donors, please call Paul 212 647 1212 with any questions. 

Donor Sponsor Deck, No Levels

09-21-24

Something very special has been

curated for this year’s

International Day of Peace,

Peace Day Celebration in

Times Square New York!

WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.

We also are in the final edit of our movie Woodstock Forever: Peace, Love & HOPE to be released this year.  www.woodstockforever.com.  

Please support our nonprofit, 501 C 3, Good News Corporation at http://goodnewsplanet.com/peacedayparty/peace-day-donations/

LET’S GROW TOGETHER. GOOD NEWS MOTTO: “All we are is what we are with each other.” Zeal 

With Respect. Love and May Peace Prevail on Earth,  For Information Contact: 

Reverend Paul Sladkus, All Faiths and Spiritual,

Founder, Good News Corporation 501 C 3 212 647 1212 paul.sladkus1@gmail.com  and our Good News and Peace Worldwide Team who make our Peace Day 9/21 happen.

www.pausetheworldforpeace.org,www.goodnewsplanet.TV, www.youtube.com/goodnewsbroadcast

Social Networks:  www.Facebook.com/PaulSladkus, LinkedIn Paul Sladkus, Twitter/X Good News to Go, Instagram PausetheWorld

LET’S GROW TOGETHER. GOOD NEWS MOTTO: ALL WE ARE IS WHAT WE ARE WITH EACH OTHER. ZEAL

For more information contact: 

Reverend Paul Sladkus, All Faiths and Spiritual 212 647 1212

New York, NY, Montauk, NY

PS – SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY FOR OUR FRIENDS AND MEMBERS:

Looking for a vacation rental, SHORT TERM, in Montauk, here is our listing https://goodnewsplanet.com/montauk-manor-rental-suite-403-paul-sladkus/ call me. Paul Sladkus: 917 687 1790

PPS: Special Waterfront Real Estate Canada, Laurentians, your dreams though your own waterfront real estate. www.monlac.com

Domaine Le Sanctuaire des Lacs offers you a piece of paradise situated in a large gated territory in the Laurentians

Call Paul Sladkus: 917 687 1790

The post GoodNewsLetter: Peace Day Press Release, still time to sponsor/donate – We would love you to participate! appeared first on Good News!.

Woodstock forever ”
Andres Aquino, Director and Founder of GSF Awards now in its 6th edition announces:
“Woodstock Forever” one of the world most iconic concert and largest constellation of stars ever in one film, short version will be screened at the Global Short Film Awards (GSF Awards) Gala during Cannes Film Festival, July 12, 2021 at a private villa. The GSF Awards has gain world fame as a top sophisticated event where royals, creative filmmakers from around the world, fashion and art lovers, high-tech, crypto/NFT executives and high networth individuals gather for a night of film, fashion, live performances, food , champagne and dancing.
Sponsors welcome!
Tickets Andresaquino.com/tickets

About Woodstock Forever:
Good News Corporation, a nonprofit humanitarian media company produced the 20th Anniversary of Woodstock with Richie Havens and a group from Woodstock in Times Square in 1989. GNC has now created a full-length nonprofit documentary feature, companion book, Hug For Peace Video Game and Peace, Love & HOPE Research. All produced by Paul Sladkus and the Good News team of caring humanitarians since 1989. For information go to: www.woodstockforever.com.

The movie includes many Peace, Love & Hope celebrities: #DionneWarwick Host #MichaelDouglas #kirkdouglas #leonardodicaprio #steviewonder #taylorswift #KaseyMusgraves #RingoStarr #NeilDeGrosse #LadyGaga #oprahwinfrey #DianaRoss
#RichieHavens #TomHanks #EltonJohn #LionKing #TheSimpsons #JohnLennon #BruceSpringsteen #PeteSeeger #LouisArmstrong #DeepakChopra #OrangeistheNewBlack #Coco #Spaceballs #GonewiththeWind #EllenDeGeneres #gayleking #jerryseinfeld lots of children…

http://globalshortfilmawards.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/gsf-awards-cannes-sponsor-agreement-12july2021-v1.pdf

#GOOD #NEWS #Cannes #Film #Festival #Peace #Love #HOPE #participate

The post GOOD NEWS! Cannes Global Short Film Awards Invites Woodstock Forever: Peace, Love & HOPE MOVIE to participate in 3D. appeared first on Good News!.

It is requesting your participation in spreading the word to assist in raising the necessary funds through the Crowdrise platform.

Please join in this important effort to create a positive message for the hundreds of thousands and their families who suffer from this debilitating condition. You may participate by enlisting on the funding team and/or by making a tax deductible contribution.

Check out the link below and click on the “Join The Team” button. Your assistance as a team member will be reflected in the credits.

https://www.crowdrise.com/copos-ptsd-health-initiative

The post COPO Organization (a 501(c)(3) charitable organization) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) awareness, click for videos n podcasts… appeared first on Good News!.