Spokane Neighborhood Action Partners and SNAP Financial Access have named Chief Operating Officer Amber Johnson as the organizations’ next CEO.

Johnson, who previously served as chief operating officer since 2024, began her new role as SNAP’s incoming CEO on June 1. Johnson will officially assume the role of CEO on Oct. 1, according a press release from SNAP. Longtime CEO Julie Honekamp will remain onboard until Jan. 1, 2027, to work alongside Johnson during the transition.

Johnson has held several positions at the nonprofit since joining as a legal intern and program assistant in 2005, after graduating from the Gonzaga University School of Law, she says.

“It has been my professional career since I got out of law school,” Johnson says of the organization. “I can't think of a better place to spend my remaining years in my career than SNAP.”

A search for a new CEO began in November 2025. The boards of directors of both SNAP and SNAP Financial Access selected Johnson from over 100 applicants, Johnson says.

In January, SNAP announced Honekamp would be stepping down after more than 15 years of leadership.

“I've been at nonprofit management now for 37 years, so even outside of SNAP, and they're very demanding jobs,” Honekamp says. “There comes a time when you just know the complexity is a lot to hold, and we had great people coming up, and they're ready to step into that role. Servant leadership is knowing when it's time to step back.”

Honekamp first became involved with SNAP in 1996 as a housing services coordinator before moving to another nonprofit in 2004. She rejoined SNAP as deputy director in 2007 and has held the role of CEO since 2011, she says.

Johnson and Honekamp will work together to find a new chief operating officer, Johnson says.

“A part of (the transition) is working to assume supervision of some roles that I don't currently oversee and getting more familiar with our IT systems and staffing and things of that nature,” she says. “It really gives me an opportunity to get to know the teams, the systems, and some of those pieces that I'm not as familiar with.”

SNAP and SNAP Financial Access serve 40,000 people a year, Honekamp says. The organizations provide affordable housing; assistance for down payments, energy, and home repairs; home and foreclosure prevention loans; education and homebuyer counseling; homelessness outreach; and operates the Women’s Business Center, which offers consulting, training, and financing.