Joanne is a retired life credentialed preschool special education teacher of 39 years. She received her BA and MA in Ed. at San Francisco State University and also studied at St. Mary’s College. She began her teaching career in the Contra Costa County Office of Education and spent most of 19 years at Los Medanos Community College (LMC), teaching in a full inclusion program. She taught special education evening classes in the Early Childhood Development Program at LMC. In 2000, she transferred to the Albany Unified School District where she was the lead teacher in the preschool Special Day Class. She has a myriad of experience teaching and creating individualized education programs for students across the autism and neurodiverse spectrum. Joanne has had the pleasure of parenting twins, a boy and girl, who are now young adults. She is a native of San Francisco and girl scouting and active volunteerism is near and dear to her. She was a Girl Scout leader and has a special group of 6 Girl Scout friends, some of whom met when they were in Kindergarten, called the “Chicken Sisters”. She enjoys traveling together with her “Chicken Sisters” especially to National Parks and reconnecting with friends from the past.