Joan Concilio (they/them)

The face of a nonbinary person with short hair, glasses, many earrings and an infinity-symbol necklace.

website maker, project manager, accessibility (#a11y) and diversity champion, writer and editor (aka word nerd), martial artist, painter artist, public health researcher, nonprofit founder, human (frequent user of parentheses)

(you know… the usual Joan-of-all-trades)

Digital doing and managing

  • Currently a Business Systems Analyst II for FHI 360, supporting the English Access Scholarship Program
  • Co-owner of Technical Penguins, a full-service web firm offering development, design, content and “general internettery” services
  • Former web specialist for Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pa.
  • Former innovation editor (web/digital editor) for ydr.com (York Daily Record/Sunday News, York, Pa.)
  • Extreme accessibility (#a11y) advocate – WCAG 2.x standards, Section 508 compliance and general best practices for universal design
  • Amazing at: HTML, CSS, Javascript, project management, editing, writing, public speaking, keeping track of the ins and outs of many different style guides
  • Skilled in: php, jQuery, Python, server management, version control
  • Software: Google, Microsoft and Adobe products
  • Connect on LinkedIn

Writing and editing

Public health

  • 2019 graduate, Master of Professional Studies in Homeland Security – Public Health Preparedness, with highest honors, Penn State
  • Presented my thesis, Understanding Boko Haram activity and Lassa fever incidence in Nigeria, 2017-2018, at the 2019 World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine (WADEM) International Congress in Brisbane, Australia, where I won a Best Poster award
  • My investigative report on the first Lassa fever death in the United States (PDF) was named best news feature in Pennsylvania in 2015
  • Interested in research collaborations on Lassa virus, Nigerian public health issues, Boko Haram, accessibility and disaster response, disaster communications and related topics

Nonprofit: Pengins for Everyone

  • No, that’s not a typo
  • Pengins for Everyone is a small nonprofit I co-founded to give stuffed penguins away to people in need of a smile
  • We’re at more than 1,100 given so far, and have more than 22,000 (!) requests
  • … so, you know, donations welcome

Other things

  • I make, show and sell abstract art (generally acrylic ink on Yupo synthetic paper, plus collage and other mixed-media work)
  • See my art portfolio here
  • Buy art prints here
  • Second-degree black belt in tae kwon do/tang soo do, Dover Dragons, 2017 (first-degree black belt, Dover Dragons, 2013); also proud to have trained at Inner Warrior Martial Arts in Red Lion, Pa., and trained and served as an assistant instructor at Crouching Tiger Martial Arts in Florence, Ariz.
  • Trans rights are human rights
  • Black lives matter
  • Get vaccinated and wear a mask