Her parents fled the People’s Republic of China on one of the last boats leaving Shang Hai, China in 1949 and settled in Minneapolis.  Joyce Yu grew up in Southeast Minneapolis attending Marcy Elementary School and University High School. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with the Gopher leadership award.

She was one of the founders and organizers for the Cedar-Riverside People’s Center, Cedar-Riverside Community Development Council, and the West Bank Tenant’s Union. She moved to New York City in 1980 to join the Ms Foundation for Women and later to organize the Peace with Justice campaign for the National Council of Churches. She initiated and spearheaded the first grassroots women’s participation in Nairobi UN Women’s Conference in 1985 under a grant from the Ford Foundation.  

Later, she joined the UN Development Programme (UNDP) , the field development agency of the UN and represented UNDP in Jamaica, Malaysia and Samoa.

She also served at headquarters in the Regional Bureau for Asia and Pacific.  Her last UN posting was in Bonn, Germany as Deputy Coordinator of UN Volunteers, the world’s largest volunteer corps, serving most of the UN Peacekeeping missions. Previously, she was Executive Director of the Ms. Foundation for Women and Program Officer at the Otto Bremer Foundation in St. Paul, Minnesota. She was a founding board member of Women, Foundations & Corporate Philanthropy, New York Grantmakers Association, and President of the Museum of the Chinese in America.

A long-time organizer for community social services, urban development, and the peace and civil rights movements, Joyce has served on the board of the YWCA Brooklyn and with her local development council and lives in Brooklyn with her husband Ed, her daughter Alicia (who lives in San Diego) and their big dog.