Joe Garrett

I am an author and private investor.

I am past Chairman of the Board of the Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, which built the first teaching hospital for AIDS doctors in Africa, crafted and helped implement the first AIDS plans for the People’s Republic of China and created significant programs at the ministry of health level in many developing countries. I also was Board Chair of Project Inform, a national AIDS treatment and advocacy organization.

I was a Principal, Director, Vice President and General Counsel of the European Telecom Companies, which I helped build from a start up. I ran the legal program worldwide, co-authored the business plans and raised essentially all of the investor capital, then co-led the sale of the company’s subsidiaries in Belgium, Luxembourg and Austria.

I earned my J.D. from the University of San Francisco and served as an extern to Justice Stanley Mosk at the California Supreme Court.

I earned my B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.

I’m passionate about equal access to health care, defending the environment, and helping people with addiction and mental health issues.

The first chapter of my novel Makena was accepted by an imprint of Avalon for a collection of short stories by new authors. My short story, "A Place They'd Never Been," was the runner up for the Wabash Prize for Fiction at Purdue University and published in the Sycamore Review, and my story "Versos de mi Alma, was published in the Berkeley Fiction Review last year. I recently completed my second novel, a high school love story that feels a bit like Heartstoppers and am seeking representation.