The eldest daughter of missionaries working in French-speaking counties, Joanna Weber (née White) went to French schools in Strasbourg, France, Saint Denis, Reunion Island and Bangui, Central African Republic. She was awarded a diploma in religious studies from the University of Cambridge, England, a B.A. in history and philosophy from Wheaton College (Illinois), and a Masters in religion and the visual arts from the Yale Divinity School and was named Menil Scholar at Yale for two consecutive years. She served as the assistant director of religion and the arts and the curator of the Couturier Collection at the Yale Divinity School. More recently she was assistant curator and acting curator of the Department of European and Contemporary art and acting assistant curator of the Department of African Art at the Yale University Art Gallery. She published several articles varying in subject matter including Nancy Graves, Matisse's Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, Philip Guston, Søren Kierkegaard, Saint Jerome, Josef Albers and photographer, Dornith Doherty. She was the associate curator at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art from 2003-2007 and lived with her husband, Mark, and their two sons, Soren and Anselm, in Sarasota, Florida. Joanna passed away in 2010.