Barbara George Johnson’s passion for working with women has been evident since the beginning of her career. Growing up, she wanted to be an OB/GYN, but when she got into public health after college, her goal morphed from providing one-on-one care to providing it from policy level.

With a curriculum vitae that includes executive director of the New Jersey chapter of American Civil Liberties Union, the first public health advisor for the Department of Health in New York City, and director for the Family Life Institute of Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan New Jersey, where she focused on teen pregnancy prevention and reproductive freedom, her focus is obvious: creating equity in health care.

“Making sure there was equity in the space of women’s health care turned into me going to law school because I wanted to be able to advocate appropriately, knowledgably and intellectually for women. That’s guided me down this path,” Johnson said.

As executive director of the John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy at Thomas Edison State University in Trenton, her focus now is evaluating how public policy affects people on the ground. For example, what can be done to better prepare people for natural disasters? How does a city build a resiliency plan?

At face value, her focus may seem to have shifted, but at its core she says it’s the same.

“I speak of policy as an ecosystem. When I sit at the table, the conversation might not start with health, but it becomes part of the conversation. Kids can’t sit and learn if their environment is not one that promotes health,” she said. “Health is embedded in all of our policies. Housing policies, infrastructure policies, jobs. Without healthy people, businesses can’t survive. It’s a critical component to everything we think about.”

Johnson said her drive to help people en masse came from an upbringing surrounded by strong women and a father who believed in her. And her confidence to pursue education, including as a non-traditional student — she went to law school in her early 30s, when her daughter was barely a year old — was modeled first by her mother, who went to nursing school at 49 with three kids.

Now, she hopes to serve as an inspiration for women to move forward and a conduit to help them in their own careers. At the Leading Women Entrepreneurs Force for Change event on Nov. 14 in Newark, she and other successful women will connect with and learn from each other.

For 10 years, LWE has connected female entrepreneurs; intrapreneurs; brand builders, or those who exist in both worlds; and socialpreneurs, or women who have started businesses to make the world a better place.

This year’s focus will be to address the two main issues women face in growing their business: lack of access to capital, and lack of access to marketing. LWE Founder Linda Wellbrock has set up two “pitch rooms” for businesswomen: one to a room full of investors, and one to a room full of media, potentially providing instant access to funding and to publicity.

And, of course, Wellbrock brought in successful, inspirational women like Johnson for attendees to connect with and explore what can be built together.

“Women have to be advocates for each other. We always talk about the old boys’ network, but we have to create a table that’s inclusive for women. Part of that is building those relationships,” Johnson said. “We have to build the table and network. We have to do that for ourselves. There are enough of us out there making noise that we can start to build that table.”