Joanne V. Creighton was born in Marinette, Wisconsin in 1942 to William J. Vanish and Bernice Vanish. After graduating from Coleman High School in Coleman, Wisconsin in 1960, she enrolled in the University of Wisconsin at Madison where she majored in English and graduated with honors in 1964. She received a Master of Arts in Teaching from Harvard University in 1965 and earned a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Michigan in 1969. She began her teaching career at Wayne State University, where she was an English professor from 1968-1985 and also served as associate dean of liberal arts and special assistant to the provost for the humanities. In 1985, she became dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She then served as vice president for academic affairs and provost and professor of English at Wesleyan University from 1990-1994. In 1994-1995, she also acted as Wesleyan's interim president. She was selected as the seventeenth President of Mount Holyoke College in February of 1995 and inaugurated in May, 1996. Creighton has concentrated much of her scholarly work and teaching on the authors Margaret Drabble, William Faulkner and Joyce Carol Oates and she is the author of four books and many articles, speeches, and professional presentations. She is married to Thomas E. Creighton and has a son.