Dr. Joanne Lunceford earned her Doctor of Social Work degree from the University of Southern California with her studies focusing on race and cognition. She obtained her Master of Science in Social Administration (MSW-equivalent) from Case Western Reserve University and her Bachelor of Arts from Miami University (Oxford).
Dr. Lunceford has worked as a macro/mezzo social work and criminal justice professional for over 25 years. She has held volunteer, organization, leadership, direct service, board, management, and administrative positions- most recently being appointed by Mayor Andrew J. Ginther as the inaugural Deputy Director of The Columbus Office of Violence Prevention. In 2006, she became the founding Executive Director of The Peace Project- a grassroots violence prevention organization, and in 2023, she founded The RCB Initiative, LLC.- a racial justice business with training, public speaking, and consulting capabilities.
Dr. Lunceford has served as an Adjunct Professor of Social Work, an Adjunct Instructor of Criminal Justice, Sociology, and General Studies, and has been faculty through the Supreme Court of Ohio’s Probation Officer’s Training Program. Her career work is focused on the intersectionality of Race, Social Work, and Criminal Justice with an emphasis on addressing trauma and eradicating racial inequalities with service providers and service users; and her academic work, further enhances this notion with strategies to overcoming racial inequality in all systems and disciplines.
Dr. Lunceford is a member of the NAACP, National Association of Social Workers, National Association of Black Social Workers, American Probation and Parole Association, National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice, National Council of Negro Women, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. She has received honors and acknowledgements for her leadership, service, and humanitarian efforts and is an eager, dedicated professional on a life-long journey to transform herself into a productive, innovative instrument of advocacy and change. She is no longer accepting the things she cannot change, but changing the things she can no longer accept, loves softball and writing, and lives by the motto, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
