Joan Schanck

Academic Research Program Officer, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Joan Schanck, MPA, Ms. Joan Schanck is an Academic Research Program Officer at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and Director of Education for the Regenerative Medicine Foundation. Her work is focused on providing high quality educational programming within the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine science, and increasing awareness of WFIRM’s leadership role within this promising field of biomedicine. Ms. Schanck’s professional background includes over 20 years of specialized experience in administration, education, research, fund raising, collaborative team building, program development and direct care/services delivery within the university, community and non-profit, public health and education setting. She was the Director of Education and Workforce Development of the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative (2001-2013). In her role, Ms. Schanck developed and implemented novel, interdisciplinary educational opportunities with programming spans the levels of learning to include undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral training along with formal and informal educational experiences and programs for the general public, K-12 students and teachers. Ms. Schanck served as Principal Investigator of various NIH, NSF and DOD projects for the development of regional and national educational collaboratives joining academic researchers and educators with the community, government, the military and the K-12 classroom. Ms. Schanck is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts, with a concentration in psychology and legal studies, and a Master of Public Administration with graduate certificates in non-profit management, educational leadership and policy analysis focused on public health and public education policy. Throughout her career, she recognized the importance of education and the need to develop collaborative, multidisciplinary education and research training across formal and informal educational environments.