Now that the nation’s unemployment rate is at 10.2%, M* is doing its part to spur economic recovery by adding another blogger to our team.

Joyce Brinton Anderson previously guest posted at M*, sharing the story of her missionary Christmas in Bulgaria.

I’m betting that Ben Pratt knows Joyce (he seems to have some connection with all of our newer M* bloggers), but I’m sure he doesn’t know that Joyce’s uncle was my scoutmaster. Take that, Ben!

Welcome, Joyce!

M* is proud to welcome frequent Bloggerncle commenter JA Benson as our newest permablogger.

Joanna entered the world as a BYU baby. Continuing family tradition, she graduated BYU with a degree in Elementary Education and taught for several years. Growing up in Salt Lake County, her favorite childhood hobbies were visiting cemeteries and eavesdropping on adult conversations. Her ancestral DNA is multi-ethnic and she is Mormon pioneer stock on every familial line.

Joanna resides in the Southeastern USA with her long-suffering husband and five children ranging in age from 4 to 20. She is an avid reader and a student of history. Her current intellectual obsession is Sephardic Jewish history, influence and genealogy. She serves as a board member for her local chapter of Families with Children from China. She is the author of “DNA Mormons?” Summer Sunstone 2007 and “Becoming Hong Mei`s Mother” in the upcoming Winter Sunstone 2009 .

After receiving the invitation to join M*, JA remarked, “This must be destiny. Millennial Star was the first blog I ever commented on. ”

We couldn’t agree more. 🙂 Welcome to M*, JA!