Sister Joan served as interim president of the College in 1974 and '75, between the tenures of the Rev. F.X. Shea and Bruce Stender. In that time she oversaw the establishment of Minnesota Public  Radio in northeastern Minnesota, which broadcast from Tower Hall. Among her other important roles at the College were faculty member, head librarian and dean of faculty. She was influential in the redesign of the library and chapel in 1986. Her last major project was editing a new edition of Sister Agnes Somers' 1956 history, "All Her Ways," which was published in 2008. She died in February 2011.