Joan Lorden has been a member of the Women’s Impact Fund since 2008. During her tenure, she worked on programming for member education and contributed to strategic planning. She joined our Board of Advisors and continues to participate in WIF’s programs to enable WIF to continue to exceed the serious goals and objectives established. She enjoys the network of amazing and interesting women, which makes WIF fun as the group works toward its goals.
The idea of collective giving by women was what immediately impressed Joan with WIF’s approach. Although there is no requirement to do more than write a check, WIF does offer members education on community issues and nonprofits serving the community. Joan learned a tremendous amount about the dedicated and hard-working individuals and agencies that serve this community. WIF builds a network of like-minded individuals who care about the community and it is gratifying to see how many young women want to participate. WIF’s approach to funding has evolved over the years, including the Spark grant and the recognition that nonprofits need unrestricted operating money and not just money for a new program.
Joan is a native New Yorker who was lucky enough to grow up in midtown Manhattan. After graduating from City College and getting a Ph.D. at Yale, she worked for a few years at Temple University where she met her husband, another neuroscientist. Together they moved to the University of Alabama at Birmingham where her lab studied brain-behavior relationships and worked on an animal model of an inherited movement disorder. Joan moved into higher education administration, becoming the graduate school dean and the Associate Provost for Research. After ten years in that position, she spent a year as dean in residence at the National Science Foundation. While at the National Science Foundation, she was recruited to UNC Charlotte as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, and her husband was hired to establish and chair the Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics.
After nineteen and a half years as Provost, Joan retired in January 2023 from “the best job in higher education!” Joan is incredibly proud of what she accomplished with her colleagues in growing the research and graduate programs at the University while also increasing enrollment and dramatically improving the on-time graduation rate of the undergraduate population. People often see these goals as competing priorities but made this did not stop her from accomplishing these goals during her tenure. Throughout her career, Joan has had a special interest in promoting the success of women in science and engineering. She is especially pleased with the success of creating opportunities for students to experience the excitement of discovery.
As a retiree, she is looking forward to spending more time with her son and his family, including four grandchildren ranging in age from four to thirteen. In addition to more family time, Joan looks to add to her passport stamps collected. Her first post-retirement trip was to the Galapagos to see Darwin’s finches.
When Joan reflects on the women who inspire her, there are household names like Ruth Bader Ginsburg who urged us all to fight for what we believe in, but she also thinks about the women who founded WIF. Their ambition was to make Charlotte a better place for us all. Theirs was a broad vision to support groups that build a positive and livable community and to do so through collective action. This is a noble vision that binds us together and gives us direction. We can all try to live the vision. Joan is confident that the innovative and talented members of WIF will continue to evolve the organization to meet community needs.
