Byron Johnson is distinguished professor of the social sciences at Baylor University and the founding director of the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR), as well as the founding director of the Institute for Global Human Flourishing. Johnson is also a faculty affiliate of the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, co-executive director of the Center for Faith and the Common Good and visiting distinguished professor in the School of Public Policy at Pepperdine University.

Johnson has been the principal investigator on grants from private foundations as well as the Department of Justice, Department of Labor, Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, and the United States Institute for Peace, totaling more than $100 million. Dr. Johnson has published more than 300 journal articles and is the author of the following books: More God, Less Crime (2011), The Angola Prison Seminary (2016), The Quest for Purpose, The Restorative Prison (2021), Objective Religion (2024), and The Faith Factor and Social Welfare (2025). Johnson is recognized as a leading authority on the scientific study of religion, the efficacy of faith-based organizations, and criminal justice.