Gail Johnson loves to learn. Fortunately for the 30 regular clients of her business, Face to Face Communications in Oswego, Johnson did move out into the workplace, bringing her love of education with her.

Johnson's love of education grew strong at Waubonsee Community College. Wanting to finish the undergraduate degree she had started in her younger days, Johnson went to Waubonsee when she was in her 30s.

"They suggested I take one class, just to try it out, and I ended falling in love with learning in a way that's very difficult when you're 18 or 19 and just want to be done so you can go out into the real world," Johnson said. "It seemed my life experience was validated. When you take a psychology class when you're 30, you can say 'I've done that,' 'I've seen that,' 'I've been there.'"

But for all the advantages of being an adult student, there are also disadvantages. "Just like other minority students, adult students fear lowered expectations," Johnson said. "Just because we have families and jobs, we do not want professors to go easier on us."

To get help in dealing with such issues, Johnson joined the Waubonsee Returning Adult College Student group known as WRACS. To get help dealing with her career goals, Johnson turned to another Waubonsee organization-Insight, the college's student newspaper.

"Working on Insight allowed me to apply what I was learning," Johnson said. "Journalism was a chance to combine writing with social justice issues, which had always been a passion for me."

Journalism, too, became a passion and so, after earning her associate's degree with emphases in both journalism and communications from Waubonsee in 1992, Johnson went on to earn her bachelor's degree in journalism from Northern Illinois in 1993.

Johnson didn't use the degree to go out and get a job in the newspaper industry, however. "For me to write about things was rewarding, but it was more for me than for other people," Johnson said. What she really wanted was a career where she could help other people; what she really wanted was to teach.

But, before getting in front of a classroom, Johnson had to spend some more time in one, earning her master's degree in communications studies from Northern in 1995. Johnson then became an adjunct instructor of speech at both Joliet Junior College and Waubonsee Community College.

Johnson enjoyed the teaching process. "To see somebody really get it inspired me," she said. What she didn't like was that not everything she was teaching was applicable to the real world.

"That's when I decided I wanted to deal with application-based issues that people could apply to their work and to their lives," Johnson said.

Thus, in 1997, Johnson's business, Face to Face Communications, was born.

According to the company's mission statement, Face to Face exists "to educate and develop your employees, from frontline to top management, to leave you with a better workforce than when we started.a stronger, more empowered, more successful workforce." Johnson put it a bit more simply, saying, "I deal with how we understand one another in order to get where we need to go."

To get employees and businesses where they need to go, Face to Face focuses on determining a business' training needs, developing materials to meet those needs, designing training facilitation to maximize the materials, and then delivering distinctive training sessions dealing with such issues as diversity, leadership and management, presentation skills, conflict management, customer service and teamwork. Face to Face also provides businesses with consulting services.

While Johnson started the business on her own, she did need some help making initial contacts with potential clients. Some of that help came from Waubonsee colleague Dorothy Gaines.

As manager of Copley Campus, Gaines had gotten to know Johnson, who taught at the facility. "She's outgoing, vivacious and caring, so it was really easy to get to know her," Gaines said.

"We became good friends and when she talked about having her own business, I told her she needed to get involved with Women in Management."

As a longtime member and current president of the Aurora chapter of Women in Management, Gaines knew the organization could help Johnson. "I knew it would give her contacts but also a set of peers," Gaines said. "Being in business by herself, she doesn't get that much interaction with colleagues."

These colleagues honored Johnson with the 2001 Women in Management Woman of Achievement Award. The annual award is given to a woman who not only demonstrates professional excellence but who also serves her community.

Johnson serves her community through her involvement with organizations such as the Chicago-Metro Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Anti-Racism Taskforce, Lord of Life Church in Oswego, the Oswego Economic Development Corporation and the Oswego Chamber of Commerce.

In fact, Johnson just finished her two-year term as co-president of the chamber. While she and fellow business owner Helen Wittry were the chamber's first women business owners to serve as the co-chief elected officers in the organization's history, that isn't what Johnson is most proud of.

"We [Wittry and I] helped bring the chamber to a place in the community where its opinion is respected not only by the business community, but also at the village government level," Johnson said.

While the chamber and other organizations give Johnson a chance to help, they also give her and her business a chance to be helped, providing business contacts and exposure.

"Most consultants come out of corporations and so already have contacts," Johnson said. "Since I started consulting first, I had to make those contacts. The most difficult part is getting the name Face to Face Communications recognized."

And as Johnson spreads the name of her business, she also tends to spread the word about Waubonsee as well. "I just can't say enough good things about the college," Johnson said.

"Gail has very good feelings about and is very articulate about Waubonsee," Gaines said. "She's just a great ambassador for the school."