An American writer, newspaper editor, and television presenter, born in Sacramento, California, USA. She studied liberal arts at California State University, and later Spanish and anthropology at the former Mexico City campus of the Universidad de Las Americas. Joan was a visiting professor at Montclair State College, New Jersey, where she taught a course in broadcast journalism. Her first job was as a news anchor at KCRA-TV. Her credits include What About Bob? (1991) and Thank You for Smoking (2005).