Joan Barere

Director, Office of Central Grants Administration and Strategic Partnerships

City of Hartford

A member of the 2013 Encore class, Joan serves as Director of the Office of Central Grants Administration and Strategic Partnerships for the City of Hartford, where she engages in both grantmaking and grant seeking on behalf of City departments, and is chiefly responsible for the allocation of the City’s HUD entitlement funds for community development, housing and social supports for HIV+ residents, and shelter and prevention services for homeless populations. In 2018 she was honored to be appointed by the legislature to its Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity and Opportunity, where she focuses on two-generational policies designed to help low-income families and children find sustainable pathways out of poverty.

Since entering the nonprofit sector, Joan has also worked as a strategic planner and program architect for a workforce development board, and as a senior legislative policy analyst. In her private sector career, she spent a decade as a Washington lawyer in a corporate and institutional lending practice structuring tax-driven commercial transactions in real estate development, equipment leasing, communications systems, and municipal bond issues. She has an SB in Urban Studies from MIT, with a concentration in Community Development, and a JD from the NYU School of Law.