Derek Johnson is a big man with a huge heart. On many mornings you can find the former Albany High School and Virginia Union University basketball star at the home of one or another of his students. It's another way for one who has been influenced by so many to give back.

"I want to bridge the gap between home and school," Johnson said. "I try and make the parent feel like she was there in school so she understands the issue that needs to be addressed."

Johnson is a dedicated School-Related Professional at the Delaware Community School in downtown Albany, where he has worked for three years. Johnson's conversation is filled with praise for his colleagues and union brothers and sisters from the 570-member Albany Public School United Employees, led by President Nancy Viggiano.

An Albany native, Johnson grew up in the city's South End, the oldest of three brothers. While he was in college in 1993, one of his brothers was murdered on Albany's streets. That senseless loss pushed him to work with the city's youth.

"Every time I see kids killing each other, it makes me think about my brother," he says. "I want to be a different kind of example for these young men."

Many nights and weekends, Johnson visits city youth in detention centers and county jails with Ron "Cook" Barrett of the city's anti-gang-violence program.

"You've got to be willing to go to where the problems are," he said.

Johnson credits former Albany teachers union president Bill Ritchie and the late Negro League baseball great Edsall Walker for shaping him. Both men used to give Johnson and his friends rides to school on dreary winter mornings.

"They didn't always know our names, but they knew our faces and that we had to get to school. That's just another way our lives were touched by good people," Johnson said. "Watching good people help me made me want to do the same. I had a lot of great examples."