Joanie Banks-Hunt earned a PhD at Virginia Tech University. She aspires to combine technology and innovation with teaching, research, collaboration, and mentorship to inspire real-world problem solvers on a multi-generational scale. Joanie is a lifelong learner, educator, mentor, and community builder who is eager to engage educators and students in global transdisciplinary challenges.

She is an alumnus of Michigan State University, Stanford University, and a former member of the Stanford University Mechanical Engineering Advisory Committee. In 2015, Joanie enrolled in Virginia Tech’s Engineering Education doctoral program. Her exposure to seminars, which are platforms designed to expose and broaden the student experience, led to a dissertation topic focused on design thinking instructional practice in the department of educational psychology. Design Thinking embodies her passion for curricula in educational psychology, engineering education, and education cognition. While at Virginia Tech, Joanie was an Instructor in the Honors College Laureate Program and she developed a transdisciplinary research course that explores the innovation of delivery drones for global survival, sustainability platforms, and transdisciplinary research. She expanded upon this teaching and learning role with the opportunity to join the Honors College Calhoun Discovery Program (CDP) as an instructor of collaborative and transdisciplinary projects addressing Industry 4.0 real-world problems and opportunities.

Joanie is the proud mother of two adult children, Coltrane and Tavia. Her family is happy, healthy and living in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles.