ADVISORY BOARD

Joan Abrahamson

Joan Abrahamson is President of the Jefferson Institute, a public policy institute that brings creative thinking to practical problems. She is also President of the Jonas Salk Foundation and was Founding Chairman of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. Abrahamson was appointed by President Bush to serve on the Commission of Fine Arts in Washington, D.C., and she serves on the boards of: the National Geographic Society, the American Architectural Foundation, the California Institute for the Arts, and UNICEF, among others.

Prior to her work with the Jefferson Institute, Abrahamson was Assistant Chief of Staff to Vice President George Bush from 1981 to 1985, advising him on legal and foreign policy matters. From 1980 to 1981, she was a White House Fellow, serving as Special Assistant and Associate Counsel to Vice Presidents Walter Mondale and George Bush. From 1977 to 1979, Abrahamson worked with the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva and with UNESCO's Division of Human Rights and Peace, helping to design and implement new procedures for the treatment of alleged violations of human rights. She also planned and implemented the Vienna International Congress on the Teaching of Human Rights and the International Symposium on the Political Participation of Women. Additionally, from 1973 to 1976, Abrahamson worked on the redesign of the Fort Mason Pier Area in San Francisco, converting an army base for use as a community-based arts center and learning environment, which has since been designated a model urban park by the National Park Service.

Abrahamson earned: a B.A. from Yale University with multiple majors in philosophy, psychology, and fine arts; an M.A. from Stanford University in 1973, a doctorate in Learning Environments from Harvard University; and a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley. In 1985, she was named a MacArthur Prize Fellow by the MacArthur Foundation.