45 Strong: Joanna Hershey

Professor & tubist, Joanna Ross Hersey (she/her), is a performing artist, composer, and United States Coast Guard veteran with twenty years’ experience as a leader in higher education, serving as Associate Dean of Student Success and Professor of Music for the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
About 45 STRONG:
This year, as I celebrate my 45th birthday, I've embarked on a reflective endeavour - 45 Strong - a series of candid conversations unveiling the complex landscape of what strength truly signifies through the narratives of an eclectic mix of women.
My surname, Strong, has always carried an inherent expectation, maybe that’s why I believed that I could achieve so much in sport?
Yet, strength extends beyond mere physicality or sheer willpower.
Through this series, I aim to explore the varying interpretations of strength as lived and perceived by women who embody it in their unique ways.