JOANNE'S BIOGRAPHY

Joanne Ward is a licensed commercial airplane pilot and certified SCUBA diver who loves baking pies in her kitchen. She has been a math teacher, an air traffic control specialist and a computer programmer. She is an avid community volunteer and was elected to the Hercules City Council in Nov. 2000.

Joanne moved to Hercules in 1984 with husband, Pete, and their two daughters. With her children, she soon became involved in the community. She was named Hercules Citizen of the Year in 1998.

Today, Joanne is a member of the Hercules City Council and its former Mayor, as well as a volunteer member of the Hercules Historical Society, the Hercules Sister City Association, Friends of the Hercules Library, Friends of Recreation and Community Services, the Hercules Chamber of Commerce and the Oakland A's.

Joanne served on the Hercules Community Services Commission from 1994 to 2000, spending the last three years as commission chairwoman. She believes volunteer work helps build communities.

"I believe that if everybody pitches in it will be easier to do things," Joanne says. "I just decided that I would do my part."

Joanne recently retired after 20-plus years from the City of Oakland's Office of Information Technology, where she helped develop software and trained city employees to use computer programs to better serve members of the Oakland community.

Joanne has been involved with a number of professional organizations as well. She is a Certified Computing Professional, a past national president of the Association for Women in Computing and past president of the Institute for Certification of Computing Professionals.