Joan has spent much of her life exploring and researching shipwrecks, and promoting shipwreck diving through public speaking, articles, books, and underwater videography. She was the very first woman to be published in the international Wreck Diving magazine, for which she now works as Copy Editor. Re-elected to an unprecedented third term as President of the Underwater Archaeological Society of Chicago, she has spearheaded research and/or survey work on over 35 shipwrecks, plus 16 shipwrecks in Hawaii and the US coasts. Joan is one of the first women to have successfully completed formal training in underwater archaeology from Great Britain’s Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS), as well as becoming an NAS tutor’s assistant.