Meet Joanne D'Arcangelo: Background and Experience
Joanne D'Arcangelo, owner of JD'A Consulting, Inc., is a policy and advocacy consultant with over twenty years' experience in public policy development, civic engagement, legislative advocacy, voter education, and civic and political leadership development at the local and state levels in Maine. Recent clients include the American Dental Association; Coastal Enterprises, Inc.; the National Open Ballot Project; Maine Equal Justice Partners; Women, Work, & Community; and the Association of Enterprise Opportunity.
Prior to establishing her own business, Joanne served as Chief of Staff. for Maine's Speaker of the House during the 122nd Maine Legislature where she served as policy and program advisor to the presiding officer of the Maine House of Representatives, supervising eight policy, communications, and administrative staff; developing and managing the Speaker's policy and legislative agenda; and directing the Speaker's administrative and operational responsibilities in the House of Representatives. During the 121st Maine Legislature, she served in an equivalent position in the House Majority Office, which provides constituent and communications support services to the Democratic Floor Leaders and the members of the House Democratic caucus.
Prior to her tenure in the State House, Joanne was Vice President for Public Affairs at Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, where she oversaw the affiliate's advocacy, governmental affairs, community organizing, and political action programs in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. D'Arcangelo also served at the Maine Family Planning Association as its Director of Public Affairs (1992-94; '97-99) and Director of Development (1991-92); as Executive Director of the Maine Bar Foundation (1994-97); as lobbyist for the Maine Women's Lobby (1988-91); and as State Director of the Maine Democratic Party (1984-86). In 1999, D'Arcangelo served as Chair of Maine's 1999 No on One campaign, which successfully defeated an abortion ban referendum.
She currently serves on the Advisory Board to the Maine Women's Fund. She has served on the Board of the Maine Equal Justice Project, which advocates for economic justice and equity for Maine's low-income citizens; the Muskie Commission on Access to Civil Legal Services; and the U.S. Commission on the Glass Ceiling. Joanne is the 2006 recipient of the Maine Women's Policy Center Leadership Award and the Maine Family Planning Association's David & Sherry Huber Award; the Portland YWCA's 2001 Woman of Achievement Award, the 1999 recipient of the Maine Civil Liberties Union's Roger Baldwin Award, and the Maine Women's Fund 1994 Recognition Award.
Joanne has a Masters of Arts degree in English from the University of Maine; she lives in Portland, Maine.
