About Joan

At the age of sixteen, Joan enrolled at Georgia State College for Women on a schedule to graduate at nineteen. She was forced to leave because she worshipped at Wesley Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church. She completed a Regent’s Bachelor of Arts at West Virginia State College at the age of 52 and earned one third of a Marshall University Masters in History. Her higher education experiences include serving as an adjunct instructor at Concord College and Greenbrier Community College and lecturing at more than 70 colleges and universities, including in West Virginia: Concord College, Bluefield State College, Fairmont State College, Glenville State College, Potomac State College, West Virginia State College, West Virginia University, and, to a standing ovation, West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine.

Her autobiographical chapter, "Shiloh Witness," in the collection, Curry, Browning, et. al., Deep in Our Hearts: Nine White Women in the Freedom Movement describes her experiences as a Freedom Rider. The "Joan C. Browning" papers are collected in the Emory University’s Robert W. Woodruff Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library.

When Gov. Joe Manchin presented her with the 2007 Governor’s Service Award for Lifetime Achievement, he said, "Joan C. Browning of Greenbrier County has chosen to spread her gifts of time, energy and dedication among so many causes and so many charities that her list of volunteer accomplishments fills four pages."

Browning is a writer, researcher and fundraiser whose contributions to education, libraries, first responders and seniors are known throughout Greenbrier County and West Virginia. She has championed school bond issues and chaired the 2000 county board of education’s 10-year facilities committee. She helped raise millions of dollars for renovating Greenbrier Hall and for scholarships at Greenbrier Community College; and has promoted local and state funding of public libraries, pay equity, and senior programs. She organized "Greenbrier Hometown Heroes" in appreciation of firefighters, EMS personnel and other first responders.

She made major contributions to films include "Standing on Holy Ground," a tribute to the Rev. Dr. Patricia A. Jarvis and Alabama public television documentary, "Where Credit is Due," and Shepherd Center of the Greenbrier Valley tributes to Gwen Clingman, the Rev. Carl W. Renick, Mayor Charles Mundy, and Elizabeth and Mitch Scott.

She is a member of the Greenbrier County Building Commission; Wellspring of Greenbrier’s Board of Directors and is president of Greenbrier County Committee on Aging’s Board. She is a member of: Lewisburg Business and Professional Women, P.E.O. Chapter O, Greenbrier Valley West Virginia University Alumni, West Virginia State University Alumni, Greenbrier County Retired School Employees, and an associate member of Organ Cave Ruritans.

Joan was called to West Virginia in 1969 by West Virginia Institute of Technology to help low-income crafters in southern West Virginia with business practices, quality control, and marketing. Some of her favorites West Virginia awards are:

• West Virginia Commission for National and Community Service 2007 Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award which recognizes that over the course of her lifetime, she has made significant contributions to West Virginia through volunteer efforts
• The West Virginia Women’s Commission "Mountaineer Spirit"
• The West Virginia Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Commission "Governor’s Living the Dream"
• West Virginia University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement
• BPW/WV’s first statewide Women Mean Business Woman of the Year

Browning co-chaired the state advisory committee for nationally acclaimed 2002 The Status of Women in West Virginia, a report of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. She is serving for the fourth year as Chair of the Visiting Committee for the West Virginia University Center for Women’s Studies. She worked for ten years on West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, District III Fatality Review Task Force to review court procedures when a domestic violence petition fails to prevent murder of a family member.

Governor Cecil Underwood chose her as one of 100 West Virginians to advice him on his Race Relations Initiative. Gov. Bob Wise appointed her to the West Virginia Human Rights Commission and named her one of the first Civil Rights Day honorees. The West Virginia Library Commission chose her as one of two public library trustees to make a trustee training video.

She is also a member of Preservation Alliance of West Virginia, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Colonial Williamsburg, Organization of American Historians, Southern Historical Association, Southern Association for Women Historians, and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

"My experiences in the southern civil rights movement and in Greenbrier County have taught that positive real change requires courage, integrity, intelligence, commitment, hard work, and willingness to sometimes risk being unpopular," Browning said. "It is still possible to bring about real change."