Joe arrived at Texas State in January 1989 as a Planning Analyst for the Office of Institutional Research. He became Assistant Director of the Institutional Research office in 1993 and Director in 1996. Joe was previously the Assistant Project Leader for the Center for Semi-Arid Forest Resources of the Caesar-Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A & M Kingsville (1987-1988).

He earned an M.S. in Plant & Soil Sciences (1987) with a minor in statistics at Texas A & M Kingsville, while supported by a generous fellowship from the Meadows Foundation, and a B.S. in Biology (1981) at U. T. San Antonio . In graduate school, Joe's research focused on managing mesquite rangeland for grazing and lumber production, the results of which are published in his master's thesis and several journals. More recently, Joe co-authored a chapter with Dr. Susan Griffith in "Promising Practices in Recruitment, Remediation, and Retention", edited by Gerald Gaither and published in New Directions for Higher Education (Winter 1999).

Joe also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal (1982-1984) where he worked on reforestation, cookstove, and irrigation projects in 3 small farming communities.