Joan is a lifelong teacher and has taught music appreciation and chorus for 34 years in the public schools. She then went on to be head of the music education department at Nyack college for 22 years making her tenure as a teacher 56 years long. She received the outstanding teacher award twice (local not national) and the MENC (music educators national conference) model classroom teacher award. She also has a masters in social work and is a certified social worker she is on the board of the New Rochelle opera and laid leader of her church. She now takes her Opera Experience Class on the road. road. Most important she is the mother to three children and the grandmother to six children.