A second generation “Valley Girl,” Joan Griffin was raised in the small SoCal town of San Fernando—a place where, for better or worse, everyone knew everyone else—and attended UCLA, graduating with a BA in Psychobiology.
Joan navigated her way through two rewarding careers—marketing computers back in the day and as an entrepreneur selling and sailing boats—before applying her love of storytelling to her dual passions for teaching and writing. She taught writing and literature to middle school students in Colfax for twenty-five years and earned an MA in Contemplative Education from Naropa University.
After retiring, Joan began teaching women’s history, literature, and writing classes at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Sierra College and UC Davis and is currently serving on the OLLI-Sierra Advisory Council.
Joan has many favorite pursuits. She loves hiking in the Sierra. She enjoys photography, travel, history, quilt-making, and wine-tasting.
Her debut book, an adventure memoir, Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail, is published by Black Rose Writing, and was released in Fall 2023.
Joan is currently working on her second book, also a memoir, about the adventure of being an adoptee and meeting both branches of her birth-family.
Please visit Joans’ website at https://www.joangriffin.us
You can find Joan’s newsletter/blog here: https://joangriffin.substack.com
Follow Joan on Facebook @joangriffinauthor
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