Joy Ford Austin is a Guyanese-American non-profit executive, philanthropist, humanitarian, and arts patron.

She was the director of the African American Museums Association, which she helped found in 1980, and worked with institutions to preserve African-American culture and history.

[3] Austin's maternal family were indentured servants from India who arrived in Guyana during colonial rule and joined the Canadian Presbyterian Mission.

[9] Austin is the founder and president of AustinFord Associates, a consulting firm that works with the Presidential Commission for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Smithsonian Institution, Telesis Corporation, and the Chicago Housing Trust.

One of their daughters, Ariana Joy Lalita Austin, is married to Prince Joel Dawit Makonnen, a great-grandson of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie.