Joan received her BSN from the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing and later obtained her MPH, also from Hunter College, with a concentration in Community Education. Her commitment to health disparities caused by the social determinants of health has never wavered, whether working with homeless youth during the height of HIV epidemic, in the foster care system with traumatized children and adolescents, with adults living with physical and mental illness in a supportive housing or while training nurses to provide compassionate care. She has served as adjunct faculty at the City College School of Nursing and in the bachelor's in Public Health Program at Hunter College. Her recent decision to return to school to become a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner has been a dream of hers and she is thrilled to have been chosen to be a fellow in the Cabrini-Hunter Fellowship program.