About me
If you've ever left a workshop thinking, "That was actually fun — and I learned something," there's a good chance Peter Johnston was in the room.
Peter is a John Maxwell Certified Coach, Trainer, Speaker, and Behaviour Analyst whose approach to professional learning is grounded in a simple but powerful belief: when people are engaged, curious, and enjoying themselves, real learning happens. Every workshop he designs and delivers is built with that in mind — dynamic, practical, and deliberately free of the dull.
Peter's career has been defined by a willingness to lead from the edge. He has led, developed, and managed change across several Surrey high schools before taking on the role of Director of North American Markets for Franklin Covey Canada, where he designed and facilitated workshops for school districts and educational conferences across Canada and the United States. He then led a professional development start-up, Educator's Symposium, for School Specialty — before his deepest conviction pulled him back: that schools can and should do better for every learner.
That conviction led Peter to found the Surrey Academy of Innovative Learning (SAIL), a K–12 public school start-up that challenged the status quo and offered a radically different vision of what teaching and learning could look like inside the public education system.
Today, as Director of Professional Learning and Development at the BC Principals' and Vice-Principals' Association, Peter creates and delivers leadership learning that is bold, inclusive, and grounded in equity — intentionally designed to be free of bias, colonial legacies, and systemic inequity. He specializes in bringing educational theory to life so that school leaders can actually see what it looks like in their context.
"Peter is the kind of facilitator who makes you forget you're in professional development — and walk out the door a little more inspired than when you walked in.” That's entirely on purpose.
