Joseph was born and raised in San Jose, graduating from St. Joseph’s Grammar School, Bellarmine College Preparatory and San Jose State University. He earned a master’s degree in education from SJSU. His wife, Chris Di Salvo, is a professor of public relations at San Jose State University and owns her own public relations business. They have one son, Zack Di Salvo, a graduate of Bellarmine and UCLA. He attended San Jose Unified Schools Schallenberger Elementary and Hoover Middle School. After 6 years with Wells Fargo as a branch manager in San Ramon for loan modifications, Zack has taken a new job in Internet sales at Indeed.com in Mountain View.

Joseph began his 33-year career in public education as a teacher at Osborne School in Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall, after completing his student teaching at Wilcox High School in Santa Clara. He has been a teacher, director, elementary and middle school principal, union president for Santa Clara County teachers, and president for his ACSA management associations in Moreland, Milpitas, and Palo Alto school districts. In 2001, he was recognized by the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) as the Region 8 Administrator of the Year.

Joseph has served on the Santa Clara County Office of Education Personnel Commission and has now served over 3 years as an elected member of the Santa Clara County Office of Education Board of Trustees, elected to office in November 2008. In December 2010 and again in December 2011, Joseph was elected by his colleagues as president of the board.

In addition, Trustee Di Salvo serves in his second term as the mayoral appointed member of the San Jose Arena Authority Board. The San Jose citizens on this commission oversee the governance of the HP Pavilion, Sharks Ice San Jose, and San Jose Municipal Stadium.

Joseph was a widely read educational columnist for Media News’ Silicon Valley Community Newspapers from 2005-08. Since his election to County Board in November 2008 he has written weekly columns on public education issues posted online on SanJoseInside.com. You can find over 160 archived columns on topics concerning all facets of public education on here. Since 2001-2012 he has been an adjunct professor in the graduate schools of education at Santa Clara University, San Jose State University, and National University.

Recently Joseph was the Co-Chair of a Charter School Summit sponsored by the SCCOE bringing together leaders to collaborate and communicate on the Choice movement in Silicon Valley. He is passionate about schools and teachers working wisely with best practices as in longer school days, meaningful parent involvement and blended learning models to eliminate the racial achievement gap. In 2010 he was the driving force behind a West Ed study to assess the alternative education programs run by the SCCOE and determine recommended pathways to increasing success and achievement for incarcerated and alternative education students. He volunteers most of the hours in the week to the pursuit of a system of public education where ALL students thrive and failure is not tolerated.

Trustee Di Salvo is an avid tennis player, chef, frustrated golfer, gardener, author and reader. In 2010 he got nine of close male friend together to begin a Book Club of 10. Their current selected book is Silicon Valley Reads “The Muslim Next Door”.