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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

BOARD OF REGENTS

Joanne A. Herman

After almost half a century living as a male, Joanne Herman transitioned in 2002 to live as a female in order to resolve a gender incongruity she had felt for as long as she remembers. Since then she has been increasingly active as a spokeswoman for transgender awareness and understanding. Her book Transgender Explained For Those Who Are Not was published in 2009, and today she actively blogs about transgender issues for The Huffington Post.

Joanne is the first transgender person ever elected to the Boards of Directors of Point Foundation as well as Fenway Health (the largest LGBT-focused health center in the world). She is the first openly transgender member of the congregation of Old South Church in Boston (United Church of Christ), the same church where Benjamin Franklin was baptized and Samuel Adams served as a deacon, and where Joanne married her partner Theresa (Terry) Fallon in 2010. And Joanne is one of the first openly transgender alumnae of Dartmouth College, as a graduate of the last all-male class. Dartmouth‘s then-President James Wright awarded Joanne a Class of 1975 diploma in her new name in 2006.

Joanne holds a BA in Government and Economics from Dartmouth and an MS/MBA from Northeastern University. She retired in 2010 from her position as Financial Controller at NEFA, the Boston-based grant maker to the arts, to focus on her advocacy and philanthropy. Joanne is fluent in French and an avid bowler.

In her own words . . .

"Transgenderism is still largely misunderstood, even in the LGB world. The associated social stigma has left many transgender youth without the support of friends and family and therefore without access to education, keeping the nation from seeing just how promising some of these individuals are. By providing educational scholarships, mentoring, and leadership training for bright and motivated transgender youth, Point will do its part to ensure that the public sees more transgender success stories. And when that happens, the social stigma will finally begin to crumble.”