Joanna worked as a Graphic Designer and Art Director for a large in-house ad agency for Digital Equipment Company in Massachusetts.  Pursuing fashion, she then received a fashion certificate from the School of Fashion Design in Boston and worked for an international fashion company manufacturing clothing for Victoria’s Secrets stores and catalog. During that time, she received an Associates Arts degree from Harvard University.  Coming to Florida in 1998, she acquired two degrees at the University of South Florida, a Bachelors in Art Education and in Fine Arts. She completed her painting education at Louisiana State University with a Master of Fine Arts, Painting, in 2005.  Joanna studied art history abroad in Paris in 2000 and in Venice, Rome and Florence in 2004.  

In 2009, she participated in a joint American-Russian exhibition in Russia.  In 2012, Joanna coordinated and instructed 2 traveling art workshops to Santa Fe, NM and St. Augustine, FL.  In 2015, Joanna instructed an art journalism workshop in Tuscany, Italy. and in Nov. 2017 conducted an art tour in Cuba.