Sheila Johnson had recently bought Innisbrook Resort and was at the 2009 Super Bowl in Tampa. It was there that Condoleezza Rice told Johnson she should pick up golf. On one of their first outings, it started pouring rain.
“I am soaked down in my drawers, and a Secret Service agent says, ‘If you think she’s going to give up, forget it,’ ” Johnson recalls. “We played all 18 holes in a torrential downpour.”
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The former secretary of state went on to recommend Johnson to the board of the United States Golf Association, believing her vast business experience would be valuable. Johnson served on the USGA executive committee from 2013 to 2017. Her unwavering position was that the game could not grow if underrepresented groups were not actively included.
At this week’s Chevron Championship, Golf Digest in partnership with Chevron honors Johnson, 77, for her philanthropy and dedication to supporting women with The Dinah. The award is named for Dinah Shore, who founded her eponymous LPGA event in 1972 before it became a major championship in 1983, and with it Johnson receives $100,000 to donate to the charity of her choosing. She is the second recipient, following, who else? Dr. Condoleezza Rice.
Johnson grew up mainly in a suburb of Chicago and had accomplished parents. Her father, George Crump, was a neurosurgeon, and her mother, Marie Iris Crump, was an accountant. Johnson fell in love with music as a child and pursued that passion to become a concert violinist. After graduating from the University of Illinois in 1970, she traveled internationally with a children’s orchestra that she led out of Washington, D.C.
Johnson spent a decade of teaching music, then, co-created Black Entertainment Television. The network was the first Black-owned business listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and when it sold in 2001, Johnson became the first Black female billionaire. Then she founded the Salamander Collection, which has seven resorts across the U.S. and the Caribbean, including the high-profile golf properties Innisbrook and PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. From hosting PGA Tour events such as the Valspar Championship and the Cognizant Classic, Johnson has seen the highest level of the game produced up close.
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“I like watching how it’s all put together,” Johnson said. “The building of the grandstands, putting together the menus, the people coming in. It’s like putting on a full Broadway production.”
Her career is deeply rooted in sports. She bought a WNBA team in 2005, well before investing in women’s sports was cool. Two decades later, she still holds a major stake in the Washington Mystics.
A fellowship in Johnson’s name has put more than 50 students through Harvard, and she gives each graduate a set of golf clubs.
Johnson also donates extensively in the arts and is engaged in the fight against global poverty. She sits on the boards of organizations including the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, The New School College of Performing Arts and the Middleburg Film Festival. Through it all, she has seen firsthand golf’s unique way of connecting people and the opportunities that manifest from those connections. To date, a fellowship in her name has put more than 50 students through the Harvard Kennedy School for Public Leadership, and she gives each graduate a set of golf clubs.
Kimberly Dowdell, class of 2015, hasn’t forgotten Johnson’s message that major business deals often have origins around golf. Dowdell, a decorated architect in Chicago, heeded Johnson’s advice to take lessons and plays regularly. “She’s encouraging of us to be bold and have confidence and go out into the world and do the things that we think are right and important,” Dowdell said of Johnson. “She wants us to feel confident in the same spaces where she operates. If something comes up, I’ll still reach out, and she’ll make time for me.”
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When Johnson’s husband, William Newman, passed away in February 2026, nearly every student she put through Harvard came to the celebration of life. People show up for Johnson because she’s shown up for so many others.
“I want to help them understand what leadership means,” Johnson says, “taking responsibility for their lives, building good character, and to learn about respecting others.”
Johnson gets a real thrill seeing the successes of those she’s supported, be it a person or a team. “I was there in the trenches just trying to fight for locker rooms,” Johnson said of the WNBA in the 2000s. “Now we’ve come light-years. Go to a women’s game, the energy in the arena is so high. The parents are taking their sons and saying, ‘Look at that woman over there. She is one of the greatest athletes.’ I get emotional about it.”
Johnson embodies the trailblazing nature of Dinah Shore. Both used their successes to support others. Johnson is an agent of change and progress, which makes her a winner of The Dinah.
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Previous Winners:2025: Condoleezza Rice
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