FEATURE
A Lawton Pair to Jennifer Pruchnicki, ’03, and Nathan Johnson, ’02
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by Kim McConnell, Staff Writer, The Lawton-Constitution and Steve Rice.
his was a fun day trip — I got to visit with Jennifer Pruchnicki in the morning, then husband Nathan Johnson in the afternoon. Jennifer is currently the director of Student Development at Cameron University, Lawton, Oklahoma. Nathan is a full-time municipal judge in Lawton. Pruchnicki earned her B.A. in Journalism at OU and then immediately moved to South Campus OU Law where she completed her J.D. in 2003. Her entire professional career is associated with Cameron University. From 2003 until 2006, she was the assistant director of the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement program, where she counseled participants on educational and career goals with emphasis on graduate school opportunities. She coordinated research and presentation opportunities and campus visits at national, state and regional conferences and universities. She reviewed and ensured compliance of documentation and data as required by the U.S. Department of Education. Pruchnicki planned, coordinated and facilitated workshops and colloquia. She developed information resources, including program newsletters and calendars. In 2006, Jennifer became director of Student Development. In this capacity, she is responsible for the areas of student judicial affairs, student multicultural services, student disability services and career services. Overall, she develops programs that support student development and she coordinates the university’s Presidential Leaders University Scholars program. From 2005 on, she has also been an adjunct instructor at Cameron University, teaching courses in Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure for the Criminal Justice and Sociology Department. Her involvement in civic committee work is extensive, participating in such committee work as the Going Green Committee, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee, the United Way Loaned Executive program and the Lawton/ Fort Sill Black Heritage Month Committee. Her service work includes United Way programs, Central Oklahoma 108 | 2010 | Sooner Lawyer
Habitat for Humanity, Comanche County Teen Court Judge and work for the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Day of Service project for the Lawton Public Library. She takes her pro bono work seriously. Jennifer is married to the other half of this dual alumni story: Nathan Johnson, ’02. He was sworn into office November 6, 2009, as the City of Lawton’s municipal judge. While judge’s robes were the next logical step in his legal career — and something he is excited about — things might have worked out differently. Johnson, a 1994 graduate of Lawton High School, spent his younger years working for his parents in the family business, a medical equipment company. He briefly considered following in his family’s footsteps, but soon discovered another passion. “I decided it was not for me and that there was something else I was meant to do,” he said. Law was the profession that called to Johnson, but he didn’t take the direct route. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Oklahoma and it was there an adviser arranged for Johnson to teach economics labs. When Johnson applied to the OU College of Law (his first and only choice), he also seriously considered the field of economics and applied for a job at the Federal Reserve. If he didn’t hear from the law school, he would take the job, he remembered. OU made his career decision for him when it accepted him into law school, where Johnson graduated in May 2002. The plan was to return to Lawton and become politically active. He ran for the state House of Representatives against then-Representative Ron Kirby in 2002. Johnson, who was studying for his bar exam at the same time he was running for office, lost the race, but said he learned a lot. He spent some time working in the family business, focusing on licensing and federal lobbying related to federal health insurance regulations. Eventually he decided it was time to hang out his shingle. Johnson went into practice with Emmit Tayloe and Susan Zwaan in April 2003, a practice he was active in until he was named municipal judge on October 27, 2009. His