Dr. Johanson hails originally from Edmonton, however she spent several years of her childhood living off the grid in the jungles of Belize. This did several things for Amber: cured her fear of insects, created a deep-rooted love for the natural world, and ruined her Canadian tolerance for cold. After migrating back to Canada, her heat seeking behavior eventually brought her west, where she settled in Victoria. Dr. Johanson studied biology at the University of Victoria, where she completed an honors thesis in behavioral ecology. This experience revealed that research was not as Indiana Jones as she had hoped, so she went in pursuit of something a bit more exciting.

Dr. Johanson returned to the Caribbean to study veterinary medicine at St. Matthew’s University on the island of Grand Cayman. Her clinical year of study was at Washington State University, where she realized her passion for emergency and critical care, which nicely suited her nocturnal biorhythms. Dr. Johanson began working emergency in her hometown for several years before happily returning to Victoria in 2017.

When Dr. Johanson is not spending her nights at the hospital, she enjoys hiking, running, yoga, and evening couch cuddles with her “sons”: three dogs she rescued from the streets of Grand Cayman. Dr. Johanson hopes to someday be a snowbird, overwintering in Costa Rica.