Joan was born and raised in Toronto. She attended Northview Heights Secondary School, graduated in 1964, graduated from Glendon College (the first site of York University) with a BA in French and English, received her teaching certificate from the Education Faculty at U of T, and began teaching high school in 1968.
She taught in North York for seven years, Alliston for nineteen years, and has been a vice-principal with the Simcoe County District School Board for ten years.
Joan married Roger in 1969 and moved to Alliston in 1974, where their son Stephen was born in 1980. Roger retired in 2006 as the President of the Canadian operation of Rohm and Haas, a specialty chemical manufacturer in West Hill, Ontario. Joan retired in 2005 as a secondary school vice-principal. Their son Stephen is pursuing a PhD at the University of Toronto.
Rotary has always been an important part of Joan's life since Roger joined the Alliston club in 1978. Joan joined the club in 1990, was president in 1996-97, and has held executive positions at the club level. At the District level she has been an assistant governor, director of vocational service and club service and District Governor in 2005-06. Joan has attended all of her District's conferences, many Zone institutes, and several international conventions. At the present time she is the RFAC (Rotary Foundation Alumni Coordinator) for Zone 22 East.
The role of a Rotary Foundation Alumni Coordinator is to encourage districts and clubs, through the district alumni chairs, to reconnect with past participants of The Rotary Foundation programs. Typically these include Group Study Exchange team members, Ambassadorial Scholars, and Peace Scholars. The emphasis must be on having these alumni become active members of Rotary clubs.
Some strategies to meet this goal are:
Publishing a monthly newsletter to help inform Rotarians of the need to reconnect with alumni and to share stories of alumni who have gone on to join Rotary clubs;
Helping alumni chairs to establish Alumni Associations;
Encouraging districts to hold special events to which alumni are invited; and
Publicizing the Alumni Celebration to be held at the International Convention.