Joe Huang was born and raised in Taiwan. He moved to the US at age 13. In 2010, after serving as a Tzu Chi volunteer for 25 years since his Cornell days. He resigned from IBM and followed his calling in returning to Taiwan to work as a staff at Tzu Chi HQ. Other than responding to calamities in Taiwan, Joe coordinated and personally participated in various international disaster relief rebuilding efforts: earthquake relief in Haiti (2010–2012), Sichuan, China (2012–2013), and Nepal (2015) and flooding relief in Pakistan (2012), the Philippines (2012), and Fujian, China (2016).

As the Director of Lean Planning for Volunteer Development at Tzu Chi Foundation, Joe’s main responsibility is to strengthen the populace and to help people validate education to the very purpose of life. He leads and coordinates not only global volunteer (including youth) development and education for Tzu Chi branches across five continents, but he also actively participated as a panelist in 2010 UNDPI at Melbourne, Australia; 2016 UNFCCC; COP22 at Marrakech, Morocco; and COP23 at Bonn, Germany.

With the belief that the hope of society lies in its people, and the world is at a greater risk for disasters, Joe strives to help facilitate the building of resilience from within. He hopes that together, we can be more humble and resilient in facing the challenges and impermanence of the world.