Joel is a member of several international think tanks, including D2K, the Diversity Collegium, SIETAR, SIETAR Europa, Young SIETAR, and the Global Community Dialogue. He is an expert panelist with the Global Diversity & Inclusion Benchmarks and uses Cultural Detective suite of intercultural tools when facilitating. He is an adjunct professor at the IESEG Management school in Lille and Paris, France, where he teaches executive MBA courses on emotional intelligence, strategic storytelling, and story listening. He is an expert panelist with the Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Benchmarks tool, and is certified in a variety of intercultural tools and assessments.

Joel has also spearheaded programs that focus on Dialogue, Community-building and Healing, LGBTQ+ inclusion, Cultural Design for Start-Ups, Storytelling for Leaders, and Men’s Leadership. Additionally, Joel is a certified leadership coach and a member of the Forbes Coaches Council.

Joel graduated magna cum laude from the University of Minnesota with a double major in Political Science and Philosophy and a double minor in African-American studies and Spanish. Joel also received his law degree from the University of Virginia, as well as a doctorate in leadership and adult education from Saint Mary’s College of California.

In his spare time, Joel is also a nationally-known spoken word poet and storytelling.

Joel has traveled to over 40+ countries, is conversational in Spanish, and has studied abroad in Costa Rica. Joel is a huge NBA and WNBA fan and proudly supports teams in Wisconsin and Northern California. According to rumors, Joel is really famous overseas and is a proud “nerd, jock, geek, and muse”.