Joanne studied law at Yale on a Fulbright scholarship and was a law lecturer and a volunteer legal counsellor at People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA) in Johannesburg, South Africa, before setting up and running a legal advocacy centre to end violence against women. She was appointed by the Minister of Justice to sit on a project committee of the Law Commission to design new domestic violence legislation. Some day Joanne hopes to set up a writer's colony, grow her own vegetables and live in a place where she will never be stuck in traffic. She currently lives in Sydney with her husband and two kids.