May 13, 2008
"I believe Oklahoma Today is a state treasure, and we are its guardians. It is our responsibility to preserve the integrity of this institution for future generations."
Joan Henderson is the publisher of Oklahoma Today. She is responsible for all aspects of the magazine’s operation and has been with the magazine since November 1994.
Henderson is the current president of the International Regional Magazine Association. With her leadership, Oklahoma Today will serve as host for the 47th Annual IRMA conference in 2007. She currently serves on the board of directors for Magazine Publishers of America Independent Magazine Advisory Group (MPA- IMAG) and the Oklahoma Pro chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. She also has been a featured speaker at MPA workshops in New York, the Minnesota Magazine & Publications Association in Minneapolis, and is a frequent guest lecturer for editorial, marketing, and advertising classes at Oklahoma colleges and universities.
Henderson moved to Oklahoma City from Austin, Texas, where she worked as account executive and operations manager for Tocquigny Design, now one of the top interactive agencies in the world. While there she specialized in trade show coordination, point-of-purchase displays (Dell), packaging, media placement, print estimating, press checks, photo art direction, and project management. Major clients included Dell Computer; Flood Data Systems; Holt, Rinehart, and Winston; and Texas Monthly.
She previously served as the Director of Image Capture and Transfer for Stokes Imaging Services in Austin. Henderson supervised the transfer of images from film to videodisc for the National Geographic Society, National Library of Medicine, Library of Congress, Museum of Modern Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
In the 1980s, Henderson led an award-winning multi-image photography team in Boston, Massachusetts. The slide Center's clients included Colombo Yogurt, Phoenix Technologies, MIT, Digital, Gillette, and Lotus. Her special effects work was featured on magazine covers and garnered numerous silver and gold awards from the Association of Multi Image Producers.
Born in New York and raised in Stillwater, Henderson graduated from Oklahoma State University in 1979. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Humanities. An accomplished photographer, her hand-tinted black and white images have been featured in numerous periodicals and in photographic exhibitions in Oklahoma, Texas, and Massachusetts.