Joyce has been a leading advocate for women of color and has distinguished herself as a scholar interested in issues of gender, race and ethnicity. In 1994 she assumed the leadership role in a USIA-sponsored, multi-year project to build student and administrative staff capacity skills among South Africans from selected universities. This effort was a prelude to the engagement of these students, once they graduated, and administrative staff in the governing of Apartheid - free South Africa.