Joan O’C. Hamilton is a California-based writing collaborator and content consultant. She has produced three New York Times best-selling non-fiction books for private clients, and she works with prominent people in business, science & technology, politics, and philanthropy on books, op-ed articles, white papers, annual reports, speeches, and web page content.
An award-winning journalist and former bureau chief for BusinessWeek Magazine in San Francisco, Joan has many years of experience in journalism and investigative reporting; she is very comfortable with political, business, and technical subject matter; and she has worked closely with some of Silicon Valley’s most successful executives, including HP Inc. Chairman Meg Whitman and former Applied Materials Inc. Chief Executive and Chairman James C. Morgan.
Her most recent collaboration was with Airbnb Chief Ethics Officer Robert Chesnut on a 2020 book from St. Martin's Press called Intentional Integrity: How Smart Companies Can Lead an Ethical Revolution. Intentional Integrity was just named one of the 10 best new business books in 2020 by Inc. Magazine!
(link: https://www.inc.com/leigh-buchanan/best-books-netflix-work-leadership-uber-bezos.html)
Joan has traveled extensively in Africa and Central America. She has spent time with the poorest of the poor as well as ministers and heads of state, exploring issues of conflict and development, food security, wildlife and human trafficking, and the complexity of developing economies. The scope of her projects ranges from privately published memoirs to global and national policy debates. For example, her 2009 book with Vice President of the United States Kamala D. Harris Smart on Crime is about the myths that complicate criminal justice reform. Joan also has experience developing unusual content such as obituaries, commencement speeches, and Linked-In columns.
Joan is a graduate of Stanford University. She is a longtime contributing editor at Stanford magazine and the author of many cover stories and in-depth feature articles. In 2011 her article “You Say Up, I say Yesterday” won a Gold Award as Best Article of the Year from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.
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Currently, Joan specializes in working with busy, high-impact individuals whose schedules and personal styles demand flexibility, quick-turnaround drafting, and thoroughly researched and fact-checked finished copy. She is happy to offer references upon request. Clients interested in finding a ghostwriting partner and understanding that process might be interested in this 2013 interview with Joan: https://inourbooks.com/2013/07/10/writers-on-wednesdays-margaret-interviews-joan-oc-hamilton/
