Joy Wilkins is the principal of Serving Communities LLC and an advisor, speaker, facilitator, instructor, and author on community development, economic development, and leadership development matters. She loves to develop partnerships for working together across boundaries, lead high performing teams, and engage with community leaders to help improve lives. Joy is often called on to help leaders in the areas of community engagement, strategy design, and consensus building. Examples of matters Joy has advised on include business retention and expansion, community resiliency, disaster recovery, economic inclusion, economic revitalization, entrepreneur development, ethics, human services, marketing and recruitment, organizational development, professional development, public policy, and workforce development.

In recent years, Joy helped launch and develop a start-up workforce development network known as the Metro Atlanta eXchange for Workforce Solutions (MAX). The mission of MAX is to strengthen connections, collaborations, and practices among workforce developers and organizations engaged in workforce development. This has involved all aspects of organizational development, from creating bylaws and developing a board of directors and advisory councils to managing stakeholder engagement, public relations, and communications. In January 2021, Joy worked with the MAX board of directors to launch the MAX Membership Association. MAX works to (1) build visibility and knowledge through information brokerage; (2) increase quality, capacity, and effectiveness through professional development offerings; (3) foster alignment and partnerships as a neutral convener; and (4) raise understanding about who is doing what, where, and for whom in the workforce. Today, MAX has nearly 400 members and a network reach of more than 1,800 stakeholders.

Previously, Joy has served with the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s disaster recovery team, as a senior public service faculty member with the University of Georgia, as a group manager and project director with Georgia Tech, and in research roles with the Metro Atlanta Chamber and a software development start-up. She is an adjunct faculty member for the University of North Carolina's School of Government and a regular instructor for the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) and the Basic Economic Development Course (BEDC) held at Georgia Tech (and elsewhere).

Designated as a Certified Economic Developer by IEDC, Joy is also an Honorary Life Member of IEDC. She is a registered mediator in the State of Georgia. Joy has a master’s degree in city planning from Georgia Tech; a graduate certificate in real estate from Georgia State University; and a bachelor’s degree, with majors in sociology and political science, from the State University of New York at Fredonia.