Joanna grew up in a boisterous Italian-American family in Montclair, New Jersey. Her grandparents emigrated from Italy, beginning with a fruit stand to build the state's first Italian-owned bank. Joanna's grandmother was a hairdresser, and she invested in real estate with the tips she saved cutting hair.
Joanna's grandfather — "Papa Antonio" — went back to medical school in his 40's and studied to become an ophthalmologist. A lifelong healthcare advocate, he operated a mobile eye testing van and traveled the state providing free eye tests for those who couldn't afford to pay.
Joanna's grandmother taught public elementary school for 33 years, and her mom followed in her grandmother's footsteps as a classroom teacher.
Joanna's dad was an entrepreneur who worked in housing development, railroads and shipping. He was the first in his family to go to college and was a passionate believer in the democratization of society through education.
A competitive gymnast in high school and at Duke University, where she earned a BS in psychology, Joanna learned early in life that reaching goals mostly involves a stubborn willingness to fall down and pick yourself up.
Joanna's first job was with an advertising agency in New York City, where she started as a media planner making $12,000 a year. Soon she won a promotion and eventually earned her MBA from Columbia University. Married with an infant son, it seemed Joanna "had it all," when her husband suddenly left the family.
After business school, Joanna moved back home to Montclair to manage the family's struggling 42-room inn which was on the brink of failure. A single mom mired in debt, she drew from her parents' example, put her head down and managed to turn the business around in just three years.
In 1993, Joanna headed west. She'd long admired San Francisco as a place where you can be who you are and make no apologies. With her second husband, Joanna opened a restaurant in Rincon Center, which won national attention for concept and cuisine. Unfortunately, after just two years, the business was forced to shut its doors.
In 1996 Joanna took the risk of a lifetime, plunging headlong into the traditionally male-dominated world of venture capital. As Forbes Magazine would later write, "With no history of investing or personal wealth, she bootstrapped her way into the clubby venture capital world. She did it by being as resourceful and imaginative as the entrepreneurs she backs."
Over fourteen years, Joanna's firm weathered the dot.com collapse and helped to launch over sixty Bay Area companies in a range of fields from technology to retailing to consumer products to wireless networking to cognitive learning to financial services for the unbanked.
Joanna teaches at Santa Clara University and is active with the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, which brings business-building skills to students in low-income communities. Joanna is an advisory member of the San Francisco School Alliance and serves on the board of the New Schools Venture Fund, which supports innovative education programs like Teach for America.
Joanna is married to John Hamm, a venture capitalist, author, and CEO Advisor. She is the proud mother of four in a blended household comprised of her 21 year old son Arthur, her 16 year old daughter Taylor, her 13 year old step-daughter, Andie and her 11 year old step-daughter Perry. The family is topped off with two dogs, Jack and Jill.
