Nicole Jeanine Johnson is a journalist and storyteller from Englewood, a neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. As an investigative reporter, her work lies as the intersection of equity, accountability, and political coverage concerning Black lives and American society. A student of history, she leverages it as a tool to contextualize facts, support claims, and pursue accuracy with her sources. She has a growing social media following, going by @NicoletheNewsLady on TikTo, YouTube, and Instagram. 

She is the 2025 National Association of Black Journalists Chicago Chapter Emerging Journalist of the Year.

Currently, she is the Investigative Fellow at Chicago Public Media, sponsored by the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law Government Transparency Initiative. 

Her work has been featured in Reuters, the Chicago Sun-Times, WBEZ, the Chicago Defender, the Harvey World Herald, and City Bureau, and local newspapers across the state of Illinois. She has been a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated for 16 years. 

Johnson earned a Master of Science in Journalism from the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, an Master of Science in Education Policy from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, Master of Arts in Teaching from National Louis University, and Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Michigan. She resides in South Shore in Chicago, and is the dog mom to Blaque Joy, a Shih-Tzu.