It seems as if educating runs in the blood of Associate Vice Provost for Academic Support Services, Joan Becker. Maybe it is just in her genes: her mother was a math teacher and her father was the headmaster of several private schools. Originally from Austin, Texas, when Joan was 15 her family relocated to Jackson, Mississippi, which she described as a “culture shock.” Upon graduating from high school, she applied to Wellesley College in an effort to “get as far away from home as possible!”

With plans to major in environmental science, Becker’s first work-study job was to work in the cafeteria. After a friend mentioned the more appealing job as a math tutor with the Upward Bound program, Becker’s career goals changed. She continued with the program for the remainder of her college years, and in fact, throughout her profession.

She mentioned her first experience tutoring for the summer program of Upward Bound, saying it “was a transforming experience – I learned more in the six-week residential program than I think I’d learned in the six years before. I learned about myself and, more important, I learned that it isn’t about innate ability as much as it is about opportunity to learn. If you provide students with the nurturing, support and high expectations, they can and will learn.”

Also, during her undergraduate years, she did an urban politics internship in Los Angeles, and became residential supervisor for the Upward Bound summer program. After graduation, she tried to relocate to the San Francisco/Berkeley area but with the high cost of living and a job shortage there, Becker moved back to Boston, and became the Senior Counselor for the MIT/Wellesley Upward Bound program. A year and a half later, she went to Harvard to study for a Masters in Education. Becker recently completed her doctorate in education, also at Harvard.

Joan joined the faculty of UMass Boston in 1984 where she served as director of the Urban Scholars Program until 1998. Now, as Associate Vice Provost, she is in charge of University’s TRIO programs funded through federal grants including Upward Bound, Upward Bound Math and Science, Veterans Upward Bound, Talent Search of Project REACH, the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program, and Student Support Services. The TRIO programs are educational outreach programs to assist low-income, first-generation college and disabled students. In addition, she is responsible for the Urban Scholars Program, the Admission Guaranteed Program, GEAR UP, the Health Careers Opportunity Program, and the Ross Disability Services Center.

She has written a few publications for the Massachusetts Department of Education’s Office for the Gifted and Talented, the National Research Council’s publication Contexts for Promise: Noteworthy Particles in the Identification of Gifted Students, and for the Council for Opportunity in Education.

Becker has also served on multiple committees and actively participated in many educational associations. She is former president and currently chair of the Development Committee of the New England Educational Opportunity Association. Other involvements include with the MA Educational Opportunity Association, the Council for Opportunity in Education Board of Directors, the School Site Council at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School, and the Planning Committee of Boston’s Community Compact for Student Success sponsored by the American Association of Higher Education.

Her actions in education earned her the 2002 Walter O. Mason Award from the Council for Opportunity in Education, which she recently received in Washington D.C. Mr. Mason, for whom the award is named, assisted with the first Upward Bound program and the establishments of the TRIO programs are attributed to his energetic leadership.

As if her educational accomplishments are not enough, she is part of a cooking club and has contributed to a community garden in her neighborhood in Jamaica Plain. “It was an empty, overgrown lot that was the scene of a lot of illicit activity. We organized the neighborhood and eventually were able to get a grant from the city to turn the lot into a park and community garden.” Grant writing seems to be a specialty of hers.