About

Joan M. Prince, PhD, joined AGB as a consultant in 2026, with a focus on board governance and effectiveness. She is a seasoned higher education professional with nearly 30+ years of experience, traversing both public higher education and medical schools. In 2012, Prince was appointed by the President of the United States to serve as a senior advisor to the Department of State with an honorary ambassador appointment to the United Nations, occupying the United States seat in the General Assembly. Her focus during that time was the education of women and girls, global health and humanitarian efforts, and international higher education governance and structure.

Prince has served as a seasoned board chair, board director, and governance chair for a diversity of organizations and companies including higher education foundations, alumni associations, publicly traded and privately held companies, and nonprofit organizations, both nationally and regionally. In 2023, Governor Tony Evers of Wisconsin appointed Prince to the University of Wisconsin System board of regents, where she chairs the education committee. Governor Evers also appointed her to the Higher Educational Aids Board for the State of Wisconsin (HEAB), the state agency responsible for management and oversight of the financial aid system for Wisconsin residents attending higher education institutions.

Her professional tenure included serving as a vice chancellor for global inclusion and engagement at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Over the years in this role, she served on the executive team for six chancellors as their public/private envoy, leadership strategist (both internal and external to the institution, and which included working with university governance such as faculty senates, academic and university committees, provost, and deans), and administrator for several programs and units. This role also included the appointment as a clinical associate professor in the College of Health Sciences. Prince has also served as a senior administrator for both a multi-hospital laboratory system and for Wisconsin’s only public medical school (now the UW School of Medicine and Public Health).

Professional Credentials

Prince earned her PhD in educational leadership and health sciences from The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She also completed an MS in clinical laboratory medicine and a BS in medical technology. In addition, Prince holds certifications in private and public board governance as well as higher education fellowship certificates, where her research focus was higher education board governance, structures, and their effectiveness.