Candidate for
Council Member; City of Claremont

FAMILY: Joe was born in Fresno, California at the end of World War II, the second of five sons of James and Jeannette Lyons. He spent his grade school years in Boston, MA and his youth beyond that in San Diego. He and his former wife, Susan, are the proud parents of four sons, Adam, Matthew, Peter and Bryce, all of whom graduated from San Dimas High School. Joe has been a Claremont resident since 2002, and lives in a committed relationship with his beloved life partner, Sharyn Webb, and between them they have 9 grandchildren.

COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP: While raising his children, Joe was actively involved at all levels of the youth sports and other organized activities in which his boys participated. He was founding president of the San Dimas High School Academic Boosters Club, organized and administered the Practice SAT Session Program, and was a community member on a number of school advisory boards, including the WASC Accreditation Committee of the high school. He currently serves on the boards of the Pomona Valley Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the Inland Valley Recovery Services, and the Inland Valley Chapter of Death Penalty Focus. In addition, Joe is a delegate to the Tri-City Mental Health Center's Mental Health Services Act Planning Process.

EDUCATION & CAREER: Joe attended Point Loma High School and upon graduation went on to earn Bachelor and Master of Science Degrees, both in Microbiology, from San Diego State University. He worked in medical research at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, from 1973 until accepting a position, in1983, to help establish the Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory at the City of Hope National Medical Center.

In addition to his research responsibilities, Joe was appointed to a number of institutional committees and Chaired the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. Joe was elected to the Research Staff Organization's Executive Committee and served on the Salary and Benefits Negotiating Committee, on which he served for a decade. He retired from the City of Hope in 2009. In 2004, Joe earned a Ph.D. in Immunogenetics, by true 'distance learning', from University Medical Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He has also run for the California State Assembly after following politics for most of his life as an avocation. He now sees public service as his new vocation, asking for one of your votes on March 8!