Joanne is a dedicated, compassionate program coordinator who is dedicated to facilitating advancement opportunities for university students and educators to achieve their personal and professional goals. Throughout her eight-year career at the Houston Zoo, she has built a proven track record of applying the best practices in education to create and implement dynamic and hands-on academic programs, resulting in institutional growth and prestige. Joanne has earned respect as a motivational, forward-thinking leader and collaborator who cultivates lasting relationships with institutional directors and private sector donors to set and attain goals.

Among her successes are developing and leading numerous educational conservation programs to mentor and train future conservationists. Having earned multiple promotions since 2013, Joanne was selected to manage the Collegiate Conservation Program to supervise and mentor more than 53 college students to become global changemakers in the conservation field. Taking on the role of Conservation Action Specialist, she surpassed the Zoo’s conservation mission goals to save animals in the wild by recycling 2700 electronic devices in 2019 to protect gorilla habitats while leading the Electronic Device Reduction and Recycling program. Since 2015, she has empowered more than 3,000 Houston-area teachers to incorporate nature-based learning and actions their students can take to save wildlife into their classroom through Educator Workshops, Educator Day, and Educators Night Out.

In addition to her professional achievements, she holds a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies from Texas A&M University.

In her free time, Joanne enjoys visiting new restaurants, working out at Orangetheory, and reading. I look forward to meeting you! You can reach me at jbaptista07@hotmail.com.