Joan Wohlstetter is the daughter of Albert and Roberta Wohlstetter. She was a classmate of Richard Perle at Hollywood High School in Los Angeles. In the late 1940s or early 1950s, around the time her father joined the RAND Corporation, Joan assisted Albert in securing employment there by arranging a meeting with Charles Hitch, head of RAND's economic division, to ensure the family remained on the West Coast. The family's Los Angeles home served as an early informal think tank hosting influential strategists and intellectuals. As of January 2007, at the time of her mother Roberta Wohlstetter's death, Joan resided in Manhattan, New York. She maintains a low public profile, with little additional information available about her professional or personal life.