Joanna Visser Adjoian, Esq.

Joanna joined the Stoneleigh Foundation as Executive Director in 2026. In this role, she leads the Foundation’s mission to improve the life outcomes of our community’s young people, while guiding its programs, partnerships, and initiatives.

Joanna is a nonprofit executive, attorney, and strategist with a track record of community impact in both Philadelphia and across the country. Prior to joining Stoneleigh, Joanna served as Strategic Advisor and Chief of Advocacy at GirlTREK, where she led a national systems-change agenda focused on Black women’s health and well-being, overseeing advocacy and mass mobilization efforts designed to improve outcomes for more than one million members. Previously, she served as Senior Program Officer for Social Justice at Spring Point Partners, where she led a multimillion-dollar grantmaking portfolio supporting local and national organizations advancing economic justice, self-determination, and narrative change.

Joanna is the co-founder and immediate past co-director of the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project, a nationally recognized nonprofit that works to keep children out of adult jails and prisons, and partners with individuals returning to the community after extreme sentences. For this work, she was recognized as an Echoing Green Fellow, Claneil Emerging Leader Fellow, and an M. Night Shyamalan Foundation Leader. She has also received the American Constitution Society’s David Carliner Public Interest Award and Penn Law’s Young Alumni Award, among other honors. She serves on the boards of the ACLU of Pennsylvania and The Highland Project, and she is an elected member of the American Law Institute.

Joanna holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a JD from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. A devoted Philadelphian and amateur hiker, Joanna spends much of her free time wandering through the Wissahickon with her husband and young children.