Joann E. Welton is a reservoir quality consultant from Houston, TX, with 40 years oil industry experience. She has developed and taught field and classroom courses for geoscientists and engineers on reservoir characterization in the U.S.A, Canada, Europe and Vietnam for over 20 years, and was a 2010-11 AAPG Distinguished Lecturer.

Joann received her B.Sc (Geol) from Portland State University, Portland, Oregon in 1973 and her M.Sc. (Geol) from the University of Southern California in 1980.

Recently she retired from ExxonMobil after 25 years of service, and prior to that, spent 15 years with Chevron USA.

Her broad background has included both operations and research positions (e.g. wellsite geologist, SEM and petrophysics lab supervisor, oil/source rock interpreter, mentor, and reservoir quality research specialist). She was one of the pioneers in using the scanning electron microscope to study rocks and is author of the AAPG book SEM Petrology Atlas.

Joann has been an active member of the AAPG and SEPM for over 30 years participating on a variety of committees, co-leader of a 2004 Hedberg Conference, presenter of numerous posters and talks, and 1981 recipient of an SEPM Excellence in Oral presentation award.