Joanne joined the University of Victoria in Wellington in January 2020 as the inaugural WorkSafe New Zealand Chair in Health and Safety. This role is funded to ensure that both capability and capacity are increased in New Zealand in the health and safety profession and this is being achieved through the Master of Health specialism in Workplace Health and Safety at Victoria University of Wellington.

Professionally while a Chartered Ergonomist, Joanne has worked with the different specialisms in occupational health and safety in both research and practice. That has included being the Ergonomics and Human Factors lead at the Institute of Occupational Medicine in Edinburgh. Taking that systems approach into workplace and research problems to understand the drivers and barriers in implementing occupational health and safety and transferring knowledge to practice.

Joanne has worked with a number of sectors including telecommunications and healthcare on topics including knowledge management in OHS, preventing musculoskeletal disorders, cancer and shift work, age and work and the OHS implications of return to work after cancer. This has been for clients including HSE, EU OSHA, Department of Health (UK), WorkSafe NZ and the European Parliament.