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By Addison Vinson, NORTH GEORGIA 2028
From a makeshift Fraternity ramp to playgrounds, schools and Special Olympics, Brandon Johnson, EAST TENNESSEE 2015, is building a Tennessee community where everyone has a seat at the table
Brandon Johnson, EAST TENNESSEE 2015, spent his childhood alongside his great-grandmother, Phyllis, a classroom assistant who worked with students with intellectual disabilities. This early exposure created a lifelong respect within him for individuals with intellectual and physical disabilities. Johnson learned from her that every child, regardless of their challenges, possesses unique value and deserves a place in the community.
His drive for accessibility took shape during his undergraduate years as recruitment chair for Sigma Chi. When Greyson Jennings, EAST TENNESSEE 2018 — a potential member who used a motorized wheelchair — went through recruitment, the brothers were determined to welcome him. Since the house was not Americans with Disabilities Act compliant, the brothers got to work. They dismantled an old bunk bed and built a makeshift ramp so Jennings could drive his wheelchair into the house. Jennings became a pledge, then a brother.
“We were a bunch of kids at the time — we were needing to get dinner money from mom and dad,” Johnson says. “And here we are trying to do something to make somebody else feel included.” Zeta Omega alumni then raised enough money to install a permanent accessibility ramp at the house.
“Looking back a decade later, you realize, ‘Wow, Sigma Chi inspired me to do so much,’” Johnson recalls. “When I became a young professional and started my career, I thought, ‘The first thing I want to do is give back. How can I do that?’”
He quickly got to work. For his role creating an inclusive playground, rebuilding the local Special Olympics program and advocating for students with special needs within schools, Johnson has been named this quarter’s Mark V. Anderson Character-in-ActionTM Leadership Award recipient.
In Campbell County, Tennessee, nearly 20 percent of the population under 65 has a disability, according to recent U.S. Census data. While Johnson was chairing Caryville Cares, a group of young professionals, they made it a mission in 2021 to create an accessible playground. He spearheaded a multi-year effort to build the Caryville Cares Playground, and the inclusive play space opened in April 2025 for children with and without disabilities to play together.
“To date, hundreds of kids have played on that play space, and not just in our local community. It’s built right off the interstate, so folks driving on I-75 north or south are stopping off to use that playground,” Johnson says, recalling how emotional he was at first seeing children of all abilities using it. “That way, when we have somebody in our community born like Greyson Jennings, they never have to wonder, ‘Why can’t I go to the playground and play with my friends?’”
The playground’s momentum carried forward. The idea for what would become the Boys & Girls Club of Campbell County started with Johnson and a few others right after the playground project wrapped, and the club has since opened its doors focused on academic success, healthy lifestyles, character and leadership, and youth arts.
The impact of this project soon spread to the local school system. Johnson was elected in 2024 to serve as a member of the Campbell County Board of Education, which oversees 5,000 students and 750 employees. When he took his oath of office, his great-grandmother Phyllis held the Bible.
Johnson has since championed district-wide inclusion, helping the local schools earn the designation of Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools. By integrating special education students into daily school life like student government and sports, the county transitioned from offering minimal inclusion to fully championing students with disabilities.
“That (inclusion), to me, is the most rewarding part of my service,” Johnson says. “For us to have been a community for 20 years who basically looked at somebody with a disability and said, ‘You’re not good enough to play on our sports teams,’ and to have a complete 180 by championing people with disabilities, it’s mind blowing.”
Beyond the schools, Johnson recognized a devastating void: Campbell, Morgan and Scott counties had been without any Special Olympics programs for nearly 20 years. Determined to change this culture, he revived the program, assembling volunteers, sponsors and transportation to bring track, field, basketball and cheerleading back.
Today, the Area 14 program serves approximately 250 athletes across the region.
“We lost a generation of folks who never got an opportunity to dribble a basketball, never got an opportunity to wear a medal around their neck, never got an opportunity to run on a track,” Johnson reflects. “We’ve completely changed that culture, and it’s such a mutualistic relationship. For the volunteers who may not have ever really encountered or got to work with somebody with an intellectual disability, that kind of stuff’s huge.”
This athletic rebirth has not only empowered the competitors but also cultivated a more compassionate community of volunteers.
In the next 20 years, Johnson hopes Campbell County will treat inclusion not as a special event, but as the everyday norm.
“We want a space where everybody can sit down at the same table and break bread, and that’s what Sigma Chi has been doing since we were founded. I keep going back to different talents, temperaments and convictions, and here that just applies to folks who may have a physical or intellectual disability,” Johnson says. “I want a community where everybody has a seat at every table, and that’s the work that we’re doing.”
A person with good character shows trustworthiness, respect and fairness to others, as well as responsibility and citizenship. Those members who go out of their way to help others and those who overcome obstacles and lead with integrity are good candidates for the Mark V. Anderson Character-in-ActionTM Leadership Award.
Sigma Chi introduced the award to recognize the selfless acts of brothers. A formal recognition by the Fraternity allows non-members to appreciate the scope of the organization. For information about the award, see sigmachi.org/character.