About Joanne
I have been working as an independent college admissions advisor since 2003. Prior to that, I had a successful career as a classroom teacher and published short-fiction writer. Until 2008, I wrote a weekly, nationally syndicated column called “College Bound” which appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Portland Oregonian, the Seattle Times, and others.
During my years as a classroom teacher, my priority was to focus on the individual student and their academic, social, and emotional needs.
I am able to bring that philosophy to my advising practice as well. I believe that a student’s mental health and happiness must always come first; students should be spending their teen years growing and learning, and that college preparation should be one part of the teen years. Preparing for college can help students learn about themselves, but I think they have other things to learn in high school, as well.
My personal path to college was non-traditional. I didn’t attend a four-year college immediately after high school, and I didn’t graduate college until I was nearly 24. I attended Santa Monica College (a community college) while working full-time and ultimately graduated from San Diego State University with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. Ten years later I earned my teaching credential from St. Mary’s College of California. In 2003, I earned my certificate in College and Career Advising at the University of California, Berkeley. I believe my educational experiences have helped me understand that there are many paths to an education.
My professional affiliations include: HECA (Higher Education Consultants Association) and WACAC (Western Association for College Admission Counseling). I am a past member of the Advisory Board for the College Admissions and Career Planning Certificate Program at UC Berkeley Extension and have been part of the National College Counselor Advisory Board for the Princeton Review since 2009. In 2021, I joined the Contra Costa advisory board of 10,000 Degrees, a Bay Area non-profit dedicated to supporting low-income, first-generation, and students of color as they prepare for and attend college.
In 2008, I co-founded Get Going College Admissions Workshops, and I created the first iPhone app for college-bound high school seniors, CollegeMapp, in 2010.
I live with my husband and dog in the San Francisco East Bay.
