Joel Watson, from Houma, Louisiana, is the Leadership Institute’s Regional Field Coordinator for the Southwestern United States. Previously, he worked for the Republican Party of Arkansas, the Republican Party of Louisiana, the Republican National Committee, the Louisiana Family Forum, the Louisiana Federation of College Republicans, and for LR3 Consulting, where he assisted on Marco Rubio's Presidential campaign and John Kennedy's Senate campaign. He attended Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas and served as an interim youth minister in his hometown of Houma, Louisiana during the sumers of 2009 and 2010. He has been with LI since April 2016.