Get to know me…

JoAnn Hoskins

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Kansas, born and raised. I’m a Jay Hawk.

Where did you attend school?

For my undergrad I went to the University of Kansas, and then we moved out here, and I got my master’s degree from IUPUI.

What keeps you in Indiana?

Well, I went to work for Lilly, and my husband went to work for Bell Labs back in the day. Which was like two of the best jobs you could get in the country- they were both here in Indianapolis. So, we kept joking that we were only going to stay 5 years, but we had such great jobs that we loved, so then we stayed another 5 years, and then another 5 years, and now we’ve been out here for 45 years. Then we had kids, and once the kids come, you stay.

When did your interest in advocacy start?

I’ve always volunteered a lot, even when I was working at Lilly, I did a lot of volunteering there like helping kids to get started in school, and trying to figure out what they wanted to do as a career path. I always worked at my kids’ schools, teaching math and English, all that stuff. So, I’ve always volunteered, but it was really after the 2016 election when I was like…this can’t be. I can’t stand by, so I went to that first meeting at ARM, with Jennifer and Sandy, and I was hooked. That was it. From then on I’ve been all in with Women4Change.

What drew you towards women4change?

That first night [at ARM meeting], and I’ll tell you this story, I tell it all the time and it’s absolutely true. Fortunately, I got there [ARM meeting] early, because, as you know, there were 900 women trying to cram in there. I was stuck in the very back against the wall, but I got in the door. I was just so touched by both Sandy and Jennifer. There thing about civility was such a big thing for me, because I just couldn’t believe how rude and crude that whole process had become. So, civility mattered to me, but also what Sandy said about “we’re not going back”, and all of that. So, everybody cleared out and I wanted to talk to them, just say “hey I want to help with this, like I want in.” They were busy so I, like, tidied up, because all these women left a terrible mess - there were cups everywhere, crap everywhere, so I went and cleaned all that up. It was like a hour, I waited. Then I went back, and they were still talking with people. I thought “okay, fine.” I looked back, a guy was starting to put away chairs, so I helped put away chairs, haha! I went back, and they were still busy, and I kept saying to them “I want to talk to you before you leave.” Of course, they were exhausted. So, by-god, I helped the guy vacuum the place and get it all tidied up. I finished all that, and I went in and I just said to them, “What time do I come tomorrow?” They both were so tired they couldn't deal with me, they had no idea who I was. They said, “We have a group of women coming at 10 o’clock tomorrow, if you want to come you can do that.” But, these were all their friends, ya know, so I was going to sort of be an outsider here. I took my laptop and showed up at 10 o’clock at ARM, and we actually have a picture from that morning. These women had no idea what Excel was or what a database was or anything. But, we had all these cards, there were like 700 cards or something, that people had written on all these scraps of paper their contact information, their interests, and all of that. So, I had that big stack, and I was like I’ll just put this all in Excel and we can sort it and figure it out. These little ladies had no idea what we were talking about. They all were going to help me do it, well turns out none of them had even opened up Excel, or had no idea what it was. So, it was over Thanksgiving that Steven, Elcira, and I hammered in all that data. So I like to say I’m member number 3.

What are some causes you really stand behind right now?

Well, we’re really active in our church. At the moment, the big thing is anti-racism at our church. We’re really still working on that, so I definitely stand with that. We have an incubator there [church], to kind of help people of color build their businesses. So, we’re really working on that kind of stuff. Build up those communities, and make those people successful. Give them the opportunities that we’ve had that they haven’t had.

what are some things you do outside of being on the board at women4change?

I take care of my grandsons. I have two grandsons here in town, in Westfield. Soon to be 14 and soon to be 11, and they are just the light of my life. I retired 13 years ago, so I have been basically their full-time care giver. There is another grandma that helps, and stuff like that, but I do the primary care for the boys - and I love it! Then I have a grandson that’s two out in Seattle, so I’m out in Seattle like 5 or 6 times a year to spend time with him. I’m a grandma. That’s what I tell everybody. For all those years I was at Lilly “I’m a molecular biologist.”, that was my training and that’s what I did, but now I just say I’m a grandma.