Nancy Johnson, Associate Dean of International Affairs and Associate Professor of Management in the Gatton College, has been honored with the UK Confucius Institute’s 2016 Outstanding Faculty Award. This award recognizes faculty who have done outstanding work towards the understanding of and learning about China on campus and beyond. The Steering Committee of the Confucius Institute selected Dr. Johnson to receive this award based on her work developing partnerships with Chinese institutions and working with Chinese students and Chinese scholars at Gatton.

Dr. Johnson joined the University of Kentucky's Department of Management faculty in 1986, and has served many roles in the Gatton College, including Associate Dean of Undergraduate Affairs and Director for the Center for Labor Education and Research. She has written extensively on airline industrial relations, fairness as it leads to union joining, and strategic and international human resource issues. She is actively engaged in developing international partnerships with universities and faculty members in China, India, Pakistan, and Senegal, as part of the college’s strategic initiative to build more international study opportunities for Gatton students, create worldwide faculty and research partnerships, and recruit undergraduate and graduate international students to Gatton.