Alexis H. Johanson would never have guessed that an internship with a tractor company would lead her to a job more than two thousand miles from her home in Cedar Hills, Utah.
Johanson said her internship was instrumental in directing her career path. She interned as an accountant for Deere & Company in Knoxville, Tennessee. Six days following graduation, she moved to Augusta, Georgia, to begin her accounting career for the John Deere Commercial Products Plant of Deere & Company.
“Pursuing an accounting career—let alone an accounting career with a tractor company—was never my intention, but when you let the Lord direct your life, extraordinary events transpire,” Johanson says.
One of those unexpected events was meeting her husband, Paul, at a regional activity when she first moved to the area. They started dating a few months after their initial meeting and got married last July.
Being in Georgia seems to have brought out the southerner in Johanson. Not only has she acquired a taste for grits and sweet potatoes, but a slight accent has also emerged. “My husband grew up in the South and didn’t really acquire an accent. I, however, have acquired one after only two years,” she admits.
Moving from the West to the South was like moving to a foreign country, Johanson says. “The southern pace is about ten times slower than the Utah pace, but I have come to appreciate southern hospitality and warmth,” she says.
Johanson has participated in many Church and community activities while in Georgia including the American Cancer Society’s Race for the Cure. She earned her BS in accountancy in 2001. Johanson and her husband reside in Augusta, Georgia.
