Joan Marie Misek is the district director for the Vermont Department of Health's Barre District Office. Prior to working in public health, Joan Marie spent two decades providing humanitarian assistance, education, and program management in Latin America, Africa, and rural and urban America, including managing a statewide AmeriCorps program that addressed affordable housing and land conservation issues in Vermont. Along the way, she volunteered and conducted research on fair trade coffee farms to promote increased economic, environmental, and health justice for producer communities within fair and alternative trade models. Ms. Misek received her bachelor’s degree from Norwich University and her master’s in food policy and applied nutrition with a focus on nutrition interventions in public health at Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.