Joan Tapper has been in the publishing world for more than 30 years, bringing out the best work of the writers and photographers she has commissioned and edited.

She is currently Contributing Editor for Travel for Santa Barbara Magazine, Editor of Oceana, and a Contributing Editor to Islands Magazine.

Her book Island Dreams - Caribbean was published in 2005 by Thames & Hudson, which will bring out The Most Beautiful Villages and Towns of California in 2007. Caneel Bay: A Celebration of Fifty Years was published by Destination Media in 2006. She is currently working on Shear Spirit: Life on America's Fiber Farms and Ranches, with photographer Gale Zucker (Clarkson Potter Craft, 2008).

From 1988-2001 she was editor in chief of the award-winning Islands Magazine (serving also as editorial director of Islands Media from 1997). Before moving to Santa Barbara to take that position, she was founding editor of National Geographic Traveler (1983-1988), which was named Best Travel Magazine by the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) three times under her leadership.

Prior to establishing Traveler, she was a book editor at the National Geographic Society, specializing in large-format projects. She was also the founding editor of New Republic Books, in Washington, D.C., responsible for a small nonfiction list in politics, belles lettres, travel, and biography.

She received an M.A. in comparative literature from Harvard University after graduating from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in linguistics.

Island Dreams - Caribbean won the Gold Award for Best Travel Book in the 2006 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition, sponsored by SATW.

Joan Tapper was named Journalist of the Year (1995) by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).

She has assigned and edited numerous prizewinning magazine issues and stories recognized by the:
Western Publication Association ('Maggie") Awards (including Best Consumer Magazine)
PATA Gold Awards
SATW Lowell Thomas Awards
Canada's Northern Lights Award