Joan T. Wynne began her career teaching literature and writing at David T. Howard High School in Atlanta, Georgia. Later she taught at Morehouse College and then became an Associate Director of two Urban Centers, one at Georgia State University (GSU) in Atlanta, and one at Florida International University in Miami, where she also served as an Urban Education professor.

While teaching at Morehouse College, Wynne designed and directed The Benjamin E. Mays Teacher Scholars Program. She co-designed and directed an Urban Teacher Leadership Master’s Program when at GSU and taught graduate classes also there. She was a leadership and equity consultant for public schools in Atlanta and in Fulton County, GA.

Her research interests include the instruction of urban children; racism’s impact in schools; and the grassroots leadership of Bob Moses and the Algebra Project and the Young People’s Project. She has published research studies in multiple professional journals and books, and has been awarded over $5 million in national and state grants.

In 2000, Wynne received the “Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Award” for work with diverse populations, and in 2015 received the Honorable Mention-Urban Affairs Association-SAGE Activist Scholar Award. Her recent co-authored texts include: Who speaks for Justice: Raising Our Voices in the Noise of Hegemony; Confessions of a White Educator: Stories in Search of Justice and Diversity; Quality Education as a Constitutional Right: Creating a Grassroots Movement to Transform Public Schools; and Research, Racism, & Educational Reform: Voices from the City. The work of Lisa Delpit, Asa G. Hilliard, III, Bob Moses and her brilliant students, living on the margins of society, have inspired her writing and research.

Wynne is now an FIU retired professor, a writer/educator with the Miami Algebra Project Council, and participant in the “We the People: Math Literacy for All” National Alliance, and the South Florida Local Alliance for Math Literacy & Equity (FLAME).