Dr. Kayenda Johnson is a Human-Centered Design (HCD) Specialist at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), where she serves as an HCD curriculum developer and educator, an advocate for agency-wide use of HCD, and an expert consultant on HCD start-up services for the federal government. She is an alumni of the United States Digital Service (USDS), an elite group of technologists President Barack Obama established to bring innovation expertise to digital transformation efforts with the federal government. Dr. Johnson has also provided consulting services for user research and other HCD activities for a variety of federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Secret Service. 

Dr. Johnson completed her masters and doctoral studies in Industrial and Systems Engineering with a Human Factors Engineering concentration at Virginia Tech. Her doctoral research explored the impact of ethnicity and socio-economic status on computer interface design. Her teaching interests are in the areas of human factors and ergonomics, human-centered design, human-computer interaction, user experience (UX) design, service design, cultural ergonomics, digital product design, and product management.