Joel Segal received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of North Carolina in 1989. He is the founder and Executive Director of the “Justice Action Mobilization Network;” a nationwide multiracial “climate action”/end poverty network that educates and lobbies Congress to pass progressive climate action/end poverty legislation. Joel, as the former Executive Director of the North Carolina Climate Solutions Coalition, lead efforts in Charlotte, NC to pass a 100% clean renewable energy legislation, that facilitated unprecedented deep systemic reforms in the utilization of clean renewable energy in the transportation and building sectors.
Joel is the National Environmental Chair for the League of United Latin American Citizens, ( LULAC). He co-authored federal legislation to solarize Puerto Rico, a bill that was introduced by Rep. Ted Lieu, (D-CA.) He currently is the Co-Director of the “National Election Protection Coalition,” and the “Covid-19 Emergency Response Group.” Joel organized the first Congressional hearings in 2004 on voter suppression; which was integral in the founding of the modern U.S. election protection movement. He co-authored federal legislation introduced by Rep. Hank Johnson, (D-Ga) that would transition the U.S. away from electronic machines to verifiable paper ballots.
Joel Segal is a Board Member of the “National Coalition For The Homeless” in Washington DC; and recently co-founded “Housing and Dignity For All”: The National Campaign To End Involuntary Homelessness In America. Joel is the Co-Founder of “RAP-TRAC,” a Race, Atonement, Truth & Reconciliation Commission which is attempting to begin a national discussion to substantively address systematic racism; through acts of “atonement” on the local, state, and federal level.
Joel Segal was the founder and leader of the 2000 Universal Health Care and Global HIV/AIDS civil society movement in America. He was the former senior legislative assistant and speech writer for Rep. John Conyers from 2000-2013; and was one of the lead staffers in Congress working on universal health care, homelessness, Global HIV/AIDS, and ending poverty. Joel was the Staff Director of Rep. Conyer’s Congressional Universal Health Care Task Force and Out of Poverty Caucus.” Joel recruited rock star Bono to address Global HIV/AIDS;and was the senior technical consultant to Michael Moore’s movie SICKO.
Joel co-authored the first bill ever introduced in Congress to end involuntary homelessness “The Bring America Home Act.” He also successfully lead efforts in Congress to reduce Resident Physician Work Hours, and co-authored unprecedented federal legislation which was adopted by both the AMA and the ACGME. Joel lead efforts in Congress to prevent the closing of the Detroit Medical Center, the largest Trauma 1 Public Hospital in Detroit from going bankrupt, by forging a bi-partisan coalition of Democrats and Republicans, which got $40 million dollars from the George W. Bush Administration to keep the hospital open. He also was the co-author of the Katrina Relief Act, and lead efforts in Congress to pass the bill, by working closely with the staff of then House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
He is the former senior legislative assistant and housing policy director to former City Councilman and Mayor Dan Clodfelter from 1991-1994, the former Director of the “Charlotte’s Overflow Winter Shelter” in 1992, and the founder and Director of Charlotte’s first transitional jobs and housing program for the involuntary homeless called the “Kendall Gill Community Works Jobs and Housing program.” Joel was the former senior manager of the District of Columbia’s Child and Family Services, and successfully lead efforts to block the privatization of the District of Columbia’s Foster Care System. Joel was also the former U.S. Director of the Chinese Democracy Movement, and the founder of the Free China Movement in the early 1990’s.
Joel is a professional bass player, recording artist, and music composer. He is the E.D. of the “Middle East Peace Working Group,” and works closely with Jewish/Arab Knesset Members, former senior officials of the PLO and Palestinian Authority, and Middle East peace and justice leaders inside and outside of Israel/Palestine. He is a visiting scholar of government and politics at the University of California, Washington, DC, and a Senior Fellow at the Jimmy Carter For World Religions, Diplomacy, and Conflict Resolution, (CRDC.)