Joanna Bache Tobin has filed to run for a second four-year term on the Anne Arundel County Board of Education.
Tobin, an Annapolis resident representing District 6, filed paperwork on Dec. 5.
Tobin has several reasons for seeking reelection, she said, including ensuring there isn’t total turnover of the board. She was president in 2022 when the board hired Superintendent Mark Bedell.
“We just went through the process of hiring Dr. [Mark] Bedell in 2022 and I feel like it’s important to have continuity,” she said.
All seven seats held by adult members are on the ballot on Nov. 5. Tobin is the third incumbent to seek a second term. The others are Dana Schallheim of District 5 and board President Robert Silkworth of District 2.
In 2020, Tobin was running for elected office for the first time. She campaigned on bringing leadership and oversight to the board. Now she believes there’s more to accomplish.
“There still a lot to learn on this board but I feel like I’ve really learned a lot over these last three, four years,” she said. “I understand how to bring forth policy and understand where the needs are throughout our system.”
As chair of the Policy Committee, Tobin helped pass the first LGBTQ+ student protection policy in Maryland. Under the policy, students have a right to be addressed by a name and pronoun that matches their gender identity. Students also have the right to use bathrooms and locker rooms that match the gender identity the student consistently demonstrates and identifies with.
Tobin, 60, was raised the daughter of a diplomat meaning she moved around a lot as a child. She was born in Trinidad before living in Guyana and Central America as a toddler. She and her mother lived in Hong Kong while her father worked at an embassy in Saigon, which is now known as Ho Chi Minh City .
“When I went to school in Nigeria as a child, I had classmates who would walk miles to school,” she said. “Sometimes they were even barefoot because they needed the shoes to last long enough to pass down to younger siblings. I saw then how much education mattered. So, when I sit on this Board of Education that’s what’s in the back of my mind.”
Tobin spent time in Zambia and Central Africa before moving to Nigeria, where she attended elementary school. Her parents made the decision to not send her to international school but instead to attend school with the local children.
“They wanted me to experience the world,” she said. “They wanted me to understand what it’s like to not be the majority. What it’s like to be an outsider. What it’s like to be forced to understand that people do things different than we’re used to and that’s fine.”
She’s taken those lessons and applied them throughout her life.
Tobin holds a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College, a master’s degree from St. John’s College, and a doctorate from Georgetown University. She was previously a faculty member at St. John’s College in Annapolis. She now works as a consultant moderating leadership seminars for the Aspen Institute and chairing accreditation teams that evaluate public charter school networks around the country.
A resident since 1999, Tobin lives in Annapolis with her husband, daughter, mother and rescue dog. Tobin’s daughter graduated from Annapolis High School in 2020 and is currently a student at The College of Wooster in Ohio.
“I never thought I would run for office,” she said. “But it’s been the honor of my life. Through the hardest, longest meetings through COVID and through some of the most contentious issues, it’s still work that I love. I feel like this job makes a real difference.”