B I O

Joan’s played a pivotal role in national theater for three decades and is a committed community organizer. A core member of Youth Speaks since 2000 - she is Director of Narrative Change.  She is also Producing Director for The Living Word Project and Campo Santo. She was the inaugural recipient of SFAC’s Artist and Communities Partnership Grant, Theater Bay Area Award for Excellence in Video Design and the Surdna Foundation’s Artists Engaged in Social Change Award. Plays and films for Campo Santo include Garuda’s Wing and Richard II by Naomi Iizuka, Alleluia: The Road & The Travelers, by Luis Alfaro, Josephine’s Feast and Side Effects  by Star Finch and Dirty White Teslas Make Me Sad by Ashley Smiley. Current work includes EARTH SEED by People’s Kitchen, Life is Living, Jerry Garcia in the Lower Mission  by Richard Montoya, and Rashomon by Ashley Smiley.  She is awardee of Creative Capital’s Wild Futures grant supported by the Creative Capital Foundation.