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 expertise in social justice, public interest law, systems change, and movement building. She is a nationally recognized leader 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 racial and economic justice, and as co-founder and co-director of the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project, a nationally recognized nonprofit dedicated to improving outcomes for youth charged as adults and individuals returning to their communities after extreme sentences.

Joanna has been recognized with numerous honors for her service and impact, including the American Bar Association’s Fearless Children’s Lawyer of the Month, the American Constitution Society’s David Carliner Public Interest Award, and Penn Law’s Young Alumni Award. She serves on the boards of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, The Highland Project, and the Defender Association of Philadelphia. 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.