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Joanna Pottle is the Community Engagement Manager for Humanity in Action (HIA Inc) and is a Senior Fellow of HIA’s Mapping Inequities Fellowship. She is an American artist, educator, researcher, writer, and community gatherer based in Kraków, Poland, born and raised in Richmond, Virginia.
Her background in formal and informal education, community building, and cross-cultural dialogue shows up across various fellowships, residencies, grant projects, and in her capacity as a Community Engagement Manager with Humanity in Action (since 2023), an international leadership development organization offering transformative educational programs rooted in cross-cultural dialogue. In this role, Joanna facilitates community outreach and educational opportunities internationally for the alumni community across the organization’s 6 offices throughout Europe and the USA (Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Copenhagen, Denmark, Berlin, Germany, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Warsaw, Poland, New York, United States, and internationally). This has included numerous projects including organizing webinars and panels as well as a Call for Contributions around the UN Summit of the Future 2024, and organizing Humanity in Action’s first, network-wide cohort reunions to bring together its alumni network of over 3000+ members across 25 years of programming.
Joanna has led and participated in numerous grant projects, residencies, workshops, and exhibitions internationally including fellowship with The Fulbright Program to Poland (2019-2020/21), a US Embassy in Poland grant (remote 2020-2021) to virtually connect those in the cultural sector based in the US and Poland during the first year of COVID-19 pandemic, the International Mark Rothko Painting Symposium (Daugvapils, Latvia 2021), The Old School Residency (Gorna Lipnitsa, Bulgaria 2022), an Open Study and Research Grant from the Kosciuszko Foundation (2022-2023), CEC Artslink Art Prospect Network Residency with Ukrainian organization for interdisciplinary practice Open Place (Białystok, Poland 2023), and La Casa Movil Art Residency (Angodonales, Cadiz, Spain 2024). She also co-led a US Department of State Alumni Exchange grant project under the Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund 2023 (CDAF) with fellow Fulbright Poland alumna Frankee Lyons in Poland to provide integration support through art and discussion-based workshops for migrants and non-migrants in Kraków and Warsaw from June-November 2023.
Additionally, she has freelanced with a number of businesses, institutions, non-profits, and organizations including with Contemporary LYNX Art Magazine as an ongoing freelance writer. Previously, she has worked as English Language School Oxford House as a tutor, editor, and proofreader, as a cross-cultural facilitator with US Department of State Funded programs The Global Youth Village and TechGirls, with American Councils Poland, FLEX Program as a Pre-Departure Orientation (PDO) Teacher, and with VOICE Amplified to conduct workshops for humanitarian aid workers seeking professional development in English for grant writing, presentation, and networking purposes. She also volunteers for the US-Polish Fulbright Commission as an application reviewer and orientation lead.
Outside work, Joanna loves cycling, working on artistic projects, language learning, traveling, and is involved in various support systems and local efforts for the growing Ukrainian and international community in Poland. Learn more at her website joannapottle.com
Updated April 2025