Mixed media artist JoeSam. was born on September 18, 1938 in Harlem, New York. He received his B.A. degree in sociology in 1961 from Howard University, in Washington, D.C., his M.S. degree in educational psychology from Columbia University, in New York, New York, and his Ph.D. degree in education and psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. While a student at Columbia, JoeSam. facilitated educational seminars for public school teachers there and at the Floyd Patterson House in the East Village, a residential treatment facility for juvenile offenders. In 1976, JoeSam. was hired as director of the Head Start program for the City of San Francisco, California.