Working in the lab of James Connor, he received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Penn State College of Medicine in 2003, and trained as a postdoctoral associate with David Schubert at the Salk Institute from 2003-2007. He runs a small research lab focused on cell and tissue culture models of human stroke. In the classroom, Joe teaches introductory physiology and neuroscience courses, as well as an upper level disease focused neurobiology course and an advanced neuroscience lab course.