About Joanna

Joanna Conti is a businesswoman, politician and mother of four. Following brand management stints with Procter & Gamble and Campbell Soup Company and with degrees in chemical engineering and international business, Joanna started and ran a number of small food and software companies during the 1990s. In 2000, she founded the Alliance for Youth Achievement, a non-profit that has helped tens of thousands of orphans in eight countries in Africa and Asia via micro-credit and micro-grant programs, partnerships with informal schools, group homes, and medical missions, and teacher training programs. Over $2 million has been raised to date for AYA’s life-changing programs.

In 2003, Joanna became so concerned with the direction our country was going that she decided to get involved in politics. Joanna was the Democratic challenger to Rep. Tom Tancredo in Colorado’s Congressional District 6 in 2004. Despite raising over $800,000 and receiving the endorsement of three out of four of the district’s papers, Joanna could not overcome the 2-to-1 Republican registration advantage in the district.

Having grown up sailing on the Chesapeake and missing the water tremendously, Joanna convinced her husband and son to move to Annapolis after the three older girls headed off to college in 2006. She spent a year as a Fellow in Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service studying foreign policy and then became the President and C.E.O. of a multi-million-dollar real estate education company. After successfully restructuring the company for today's tough economic times, Joanna founded Make Maryland Great in the hopes the group could play an important role in helping solve some of the challenges Maryland faces.

Joanna has announced her campaign to be the next County Executive of Anne Arundel County.