Joan Korenblit » Directory of award recipients

Biographical Info

Joan is a co-founder of the Respect Diversity Foundation, and serves as its executive director. The mission is “promoting tolerance and acceptance across differences through communication, education, collaboration, and the arts.”

Along with her husband Michael, she has dedicated her life to this organization. Under their conscientious direction, the organization has made a huge difference in awareness and understanding of diversity and respect for human rights.

Joan is an author of several cookbooks and teachers’ guides. She is a poet and teaching artist/workshop leader, guiding scores of students to write poetry published in magazines, newspapers, and books. For the past thirteen years, Joan has been RDF’s “management guru.” She manages and administrates all of RDF’s programs, projects and events. Over the past twelve years (Since RDF was founded, Joan has nurtured close, working relationships with educators, schools and leaders throughout Oklahoma. Not only have her efforts deeply impacted the lives of Oklahoma students and educators, her work has brought national attention to our state’s growing appreciation of the values of tolerance and respect for all, through the publicity she has garnered for RDF outreaches (including our annual Arts Competition & Exhibition). A compelling speaker and workshop leader in her own right, Joan has dedicated herself to developing the arts-integration aspect of RDF’s work, believing that it is crucial to solidifying and amplifying the transformations resulting from the efforts of all of RDF’s speakers and artists.