Joan is a professor at the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law and a mediator at Vista Mediation Group. She is a lawyer called to the bar in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta and is a social worker registered in the province of BC.
Prior to assuming the role of professor at Bora Laskin Faculty of Law, Joan worked as a mediator in private practice and as a lawyer in the social justice sector. While in private practice, she founded western Canada’s first community legal clinic for older adults at the BC Centre for Elder Advocacy and Support (province wide program).
She has served as the chair of the national executive for the Canadian Bar Association’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Section and is currently serving as a member-at-large for the Canadian Bar Association’s National Elder Law Section Executive and co-chair of the Alternate Dispute Resolution’s (ACR) Elder Mediation Section.
In 2015 – 2016 she was the ACR representative to the task force for the Eldercaring Coordination Pilot Project. Eldercaring Coordination is a new model for resolving guardianship and advanced planning disputes, which has now been implemented in the courts in several states.
Joan currently teaches Criminal Law, Elder Law and Alternate Dispute Resolution at Bora Laskin Faculty of Law. In addition to her teaching responsibilities at Bora Laskin, she coaches the Wilson Moot (a student competition focusing on equality law). She previously taught courses in public law at the University of Northern BC and restorative justice at the University of the Fraser Valley