In December 2005, HSU secured a $2.1 million contract with the Small Business Administration to become the new host institution for the Northern California SBDC Program, comprised of ten service centers and over 100 business trainers and consultants who provide business counseling and seminars for businesses owners and entrepreneurs in the fourteen-county region from Monterey County to the Oregon border.
As the host institution, HSU provides programmatic and administrative leadership to this network of business service specialists.
"We congratulate Kristin Johnson, and compliment Humboldt State University for their selection of Johnson as the Director of the NorCal Small Business Development Center program that HSU is hosting," said Mark Quinn, San Francisco district director for the Small Business Administration. "Johnson was instrumental is developing the creative proposal that the Small Business Administration selected, and her selection allows HSU to jumpstart the proposed efforts and make this the best SBDC network in California."
Kristin Johnson most recently served as the executive director for the North Coast Small Business Resource Center (NCSBRC), a nonprofit agency that hosted the Small Business Development Center serving Humboldt and Del Norte counties. Under Johnson's leadership, business service delivery at the NCSBRC increased to one of the highest per-capita in the California SBDC system.
Johnson worked closely with Humboldt State University developing the bid to become the Northern California SBDC host in 2005, and fulfilled interim leadership responsibilities for the Service Centers network while HSU's Lead Center entered the startup phase.
Humboldt State President Rollin C. Richmond said, "I am delighted to have Kristin Johnson at HSU as the Regional Director of our new SBDC Lead Center. She's a creative leader who will be very effective in developing new relationships for our region and HSU with the San Francisco Bay Area."