Joanna Gislason is a partner at Caroline + Gislason Lawyers, a boutique firm focusing on union-side labour law, employment law and human rights litigation. She is an advocate for the rights of individual workers as well as a strategist and advisor to union leadership. Joanna also provides assistance to non-profit and other progressive organizations with respect to their day-to-day operations, organizational structure and obligations to their employees. She is a mediator with experience in alternative dispute resolution, human rights investigations and organizational psychology.

Prior to joining forces with Gary Caroline, Joanna worked in-house at a major public sector union where she gained insights and experience in union advocacy. She also previously worked at a boutique law firm specializing in aboriginal law and as a legal advocate for people living in poverty.

Before her career in law, Joanna was manager of the Political Science and Women’s Studies departments at the University of California, Irvine where she also served as a mediator, sexual harassment advisor and in the elected position of staff advocate for the School of Social Sciences. She has also been a waitress, a secretary, a fork-lift driver and a baker and has served on the Board of Directors of a number of non-profit organizations. Her undergraduate work was in psychology, anthropology and cultural studies.