Joan has felt passionate about social equality and the humane treatment of animals throughout her life. Her parents were powerful role models, and she learned from their support of Cesar Chavez of the United Farm Workers Union, the civil rights movement, and her father’s significant role in breaking the Hollywood blacklist. She followed suit in her own way as a teenager, collecting several tons of food that was flown to Washington DC for the historic March on Washington, lead by Martin Luther King Jr. She was an anti-war activist, and at UC Berkeley, volunteered at the Richmond Bird Center cleaning oiled seabirds. As a young female lawyer in her twenties, Joan challenged the powerful film industry filing a lawsuit against the director, producers, studio, and insurers of a major Hollywood motion picture for animal cruelty. She went on to represent the Hollywood office of the American Humane Association (AHA). With them she obtained an agreement between the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the film studios (AMPTP) that provides AHA officers access to film sets with animal actors that could be harmed. This 1980 provision remains in effect today. More recently, with scientific and logistical support from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Joan filed, pro bono, a shareholder proposal against a multinational pharmaceutical company for their outdated and cruel practice of testing cosmetics and toiletries on animals.

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Joan has donated her art work to fundraisers on behalf of nonprofits she supports.

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Joan and her husband Bob live with Molly and Soleil their adopted dog and cat, while she continues to participate in the rescue, rehoming, and support of animals.