Helen Davis Johnson
Vice President, Community Activation, Rock Ventures LLC

Helen Davis Johnson is Vice President of Community Activation for Rock Ventures LLC, the organization that serves and connects entrepreneur and Quicken Loans Founder and Chairman and majority owner of the NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers Dan Gilbert’s Family of more than 100 companies, as well as his investments, real estate purchases and community activities.

Prior to joining Rock Ventures in August 2016, Johnson served as a program officer on the Arts & Culture team at The Kresge Foundation, working to elevate the effective use of arts and culture in transforming and revitalizing communities. 

Before joining the foundation in 2012, Helen co-founded CreateHere, a social innovation incubator in Chattanooga, TN.  CreateHere incubated 20 plus initiatives, cultivated diverse entrepreneurship opportunities, built talent retention and grants programming and launched a county-wide, community-driven visioning process. 

Active in environmental issues, community development and the arts, Helen has been tapped to speak at conferences including SXSW Eco, the Building Michigan Conference, Art Chicago, Michigan Municipal League, AIGA National, and the SustainableCities PLUSNetwork. Helen studied at the Florence Academy of Art, earned a BFA from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and is a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts.