Joel Segal is the co-founder of RAP-TRACC, the CRDC-housed Reimagining America Project: The Truth, Reconciliation and Atonement Commission of Charlotte, North Carolina. RAP-TRAC has already held two hearings on police and law enforcement, as well as homelessness, and is stimulating a national discussion to substantively address systemic racism through acts of “atonement” on the local, state, and federal level.
Joel is the National Environmental Chair of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). He co-authored federal legislation to solarize Puerto Rico, a bill that was introduced by Rep. Ted Lieu. He is currently the co-director of the National Election Protection Coalition and the Covid-19 Emergency Response Group.
He is a board member of the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, D.C., and recently co-founded Housing and Dignity for All: The National Campaign to End Involuntary Homelessness in America.
In 2004, Joel organized the first congressional hearings on voter suppression, which were integral in the founding of the modern U.S. election protection movement. He co-authored federal legislation introduced by Rep. Hank Johnson that would transition the U.S. away from electronic machines to verifiable paper ballots.
Joel was the founder and leader of the 2000 Universal Health Care and Global HIV/AIDS civil society movement in America. He was the former senior legislative assistant and speech writer for Rep. John Conyers from 2000-2013 and was one of the lead staffers in Congress working on universal health care, homelessness, global HIV/AIDS, and ending poverty. He was the staff director of Rep. Conyers’ Congressional Universal Health Care Task Force and Out of Poverty Caucus. Joel recruited rock star Bono to address global HIV/AIDS and was the senior technical consultant to Michael Moore’s movie SICKO.
Joel co-authored the first bill ever introduced in the U.S. Congress to end involuntary homelessness, the Bringing America Home Act.
Joel Segal successfully led efforts in Congress to reduce resident physician work hours, and co-authored unprecedented federal legislation which was adopted by both the AMA and the ACGME. Joel led efforts in Congress to prevent the closing of the Detroit Medical Center, the largest Trauma 1 Public Hospital in Detroit from going bankrupt by forging a bi-partisan coalition of Democrats and Republicans. As a result, $40 million dollars was allocated from the George W. Bush Administration to keep the hospital open. He also was the co-author of the Katrina Relief Act, and led efforts in Congress to pass the bill by working closely with the staff of then-House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Joel is the former senior legislative assistant and housing policy director in Charlotte, N.C., to former city councilman and mayor (from 1991-1994) Dan Clodfelter. He is also the former director of Charlotte’s Overflow Winter Shelter and the founder and director of Charlotte’s first transitional jobs and housing program for the involuntarily homeless, the Kendall Gill Community Works Jobs and Housing program.
He was the former senior manager of the District of Columbia’s Child and Family Services and successfully led efforts to block the privatization of the District of Columbia’s foster care system. Joel was also the former U.S. director of the Chinese Democracy Movement and the founder of the Free China Movement in the early 1990s.
Joel received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of North Carolina. He is the founder and executive director of the Justice Action Mobilization Network, a nationwide multiracial climate action/end poverty network that educates legislators regarding progressive climate action/end poverty legislation. As the former executive director of the North Carolina Climate Solutions Coalition, Joel led efforts in Charlotte to pass 100% clean renewable energy legislation. This facilitated systemic reforms in the utilization of clean renewable energy in the transportation and building sectors.
Joel is also a professional bass player, recording artist, and music composer.