Bobbi Johnson
Roberta Ann Johnson studies whistleblowing and political corruption, has published three books and numerous articles, serves as a Professor of Political Science at the University of San Francisco, offers political analysis on the evening local news, and swims with Temescal Aquatic Masters. We call her Bobbi.
After graduating from Harvard University with a Doctoral Degree in Political Science in the 1970s and before she settled into an academic career, Bobbi traveled around the world. She visited East Africa, where she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and continued eastward to Iran, Afghanistan, India, and Nepal. She then settled into a career and in 1975 relocated to California; but she was not yet a swimmer.
"I was a jogger," she said, "but no one told me California had a rainy season." During her first experience of Northern California winter rains, regular jogging was not possible and so she tried lap swimming at the Temescal Pool. It was love at first swim. Bobbi became a regular, 5 to 6 days per-week, lap swimmer. She found that the Northern California lifestyle emphasized swimming and athletics more than had life on the East Coast or in the Midwest. Had she not moved, Bobbi does not think she would have become a Masters swimmer.
At first, the Masters swimmers would greet and chat with Bobbi in the locker room. She thinks they may have been desperate to increase their winter membership when one day, Carol Lefkowitz and Ellen Oppenheimer recruited her. When she joined the team, Bobbi swam only the elementary backstroke, the breaststroke, and sidestroke. David Mayer, the coach, had told her that if she could swim two laps, she could succeed as a Masters swimmer.
"It just is a testimony to how continued effort pays off eventually," she said, "I saw improvement weekly, sometimes incrementally and sometimes in a big way." Bobbi started as a faithful Tortuga. She found that hand paddles helped with her freestlye stroke. Our coaches offered input and suggested she swim with one or another focus until she found a pattern that worked. Bobbi developed her freestyle stroke and gradually added the other strokes as well. She said it took time for her body to adjust because she was working her muscles in new ways. For example, when she first used a pull buoy, it was tough, and it took two years to build enough upper body strength to do the fly.
In the late 80s, she completed her first open water swim at Del Valle. Her coach took her picture as she got out of the water. When she heard she'd completed the swim in under 30 minutes, she just smiled. With fins, Bobbi was able to work her way up to the shark lane, and that's where she swims today. "I have complete confidence that anybody who shows up regularly and does the workout will improve, just by doing the workout."
Today Bobbi runs on a treadmill at the Oakland Hills Tennis Club during the week and swims on the weekends.
Outside of the pool, Bobbi works as a Professor of Political Science at the University of San Francisco. She also describes herself as an avid A's fan. Although, when she was younger, she rooted for the Brooklyn Dodgers. She recently published the book Whistleblowing: When It Works and Why. She has finished editing her most recent work, The Struggle Against Corruption: A Comparative Study, and wrote three of its chapters. It will be published shortly. In her most recent book, she and her co-authors analyze political corruption in the United States, Russia, Israel, and India and describe these countries' responses to corruption. If we want to read about her whistleblower work, we can visit her publisher's website, www.rienner.com. If we want to see photos from her travel in Afghanistan, we can visit her webpage at work, www.usfca.edu/politics/johnson.htm. Bobbi says she's willing to sign copies of her books for us if we ask.
