Dr. Joy A. J. Howard is a writing, wellness, & productivity coach who specializes in supporting clients who are marginalized, especially women, BIPOC, queer identifying, & disabled clients.

Joy’s coaching helps faculty, researchers, graduate students, postdocs, admin leaders, & writers at all stages create work rhythms that achieve their career goals, but also create pleasurable, sustainable lives in which they thrive.

Joy’s coaching is highly individualized and responds to the needs of each client differently. There is no “one size fits all.”

She guides clients through writing blocks, job applications, interviews, empowering branding for tenure and promotion, project/manuscript management, effective research narratives that combat the ever-present patriarchy & white supremacy in academic institutions, funding organizations, & publishing.

Joy specializes in supporting clients who are marginalized and minoritized in academia—especially women, BIPOC, & queer identifying clients—to create more productive, holistic writing habits, and to create more peaceful, healthier lives.

Joy helps clients courageously explore post-tenure murkiness, mid-career transitions, & career goals that benefit them, that excites them, that reconnects them to the passion they possess for their research, teaching, and colleagues. She has a proven record of helping clients increase their productivity while also developing more satisfying lives full of wellness and health.

Joy refuses to believe that professors and researchers just have to “suck it up & deal.” She rejects the toxic gaslighting and demands such as “be grateful you have a job” in higher ed. Joy compassionately walks with clients as they explore what it means to survive the toxicity of higher education. She helps clients tap into the agency they possess to create a career that meets their needs.

Joy uses a personal writing/journaling techniques that help clients reframe past narratives that have controlled them into new narratives that allow for wholeness and new paths. Reflective “homework” opens possibilities for healing the past, radical acceptance the present, and a reimagining of a future where thriving is a real possibility (even in the toxicity). (Joy IS NOT a therapist & she encourages clients to couple coaching with therapy.)

Before becoming a coach, Joy was in academia for over 15 years. She draws on her training as a high school teacher, a writing center tutor, a scholar, and a professor.

Along with one-on-one coaching, Joy also offers interactive workshops.

“I would recommend Joy's coaching help to anyone.”   

— H.H., ph.D., TENURE track AsSISTANT Professor at a R1 STATE SCHOOL IN THE SOUTH

“I find immense value in our coaching relationship . . . I do not believe I would have made it this far without you. You are an exceptional coach & an exceptional human being.”

—M.C., PH.D., ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AT A SMALL LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGE WORKING ON their third book