Jo Ann is a Virginian by birth and a South Carolinian by choice. She attended Mary Washington College of the University of VA. and Dabney S. Lancaster College, Clifton Forge, VA. She studied with Chen Chi, Ed Betts, Jeanne Dobie, Barbra Nechis, Stephen Quiller, Charles Reid, Christopher Schink, Georg Shook, Ralph Smith and Doris White. She attended the Rangemark Master Class founded by Barse Miller in Winter Harbor, ME. She attended the School of Realism in Seattle, WA.

Jo Ann is a signature member of the Louisiana Watercolor Society, an international organization.

She was artist in residence in Newfoundland for a month, sponsored by the Pouch Cove Foundation of St. Johns, Newfoundland. She has also been artist in residence a number of times for the SC State Parks.

For many years she taught drawing and painting at Greenville Technical College, Furman University and Greenville Museum of Art in the Greenville,SC area.

Her work is included in collections throughout the United States, Europe, Canada and Asia.

She has had a number of one person shows and at present is featured in a one person exhibit at the Pickens County Museum of Art in SC.