The Raben Group

In her role as COO of The Raben Group, Joanne Irby brings to bear over twenty years of operations and organizational development experience across the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. Her charge at Raben is to provide vision and leadership to a wide range of internal and external-facing efforts, including business operations, talent management, strategic planning, client service delivery, and special initiatives. Joanne’s true north? Getting the right people into the right roles, ensuring the right systems and tools are in place, and nurturing the right culture that allows our staff to do their very best work for our clients.

Prior to joining Raben, Joanne served as the chief operating officer for Prosperity Now, a national nonprofit advocacy organization. During her tenure, she stewarded the organization through its most comprehensive and ambitious strategic planning process to date, setting the stage for greater, more measurable impact. As the director of Human Resources, Joanne transformed its talent management function, recruiting and nurturing a truly diverse staff that grew to become the highest performing team in the organization’s history.

Earlier in her career, Joanne served as deputy to the head of Human Resources for the Association of American Medical Colleges and spent a decade engaged in the full lifecycle of HR functions for the Association, as well as for The George Washington University, the Arlington County Fire Department, Hechinger Stores Company, and the Advisory Board Company.

Joanne has a bachelor’s degree in Industrial & Labor Relations from Cornell University and holds executive education certificates from MIT and the Kennedy School. She serves on the Inspired Teaching Demonstration School board, is an amateur powerlifter, and is the proud but busy mom of teen girls, an active proponent of breakfast foods for dinner.