About Jo Patti Munisteri

Intrepid Explorer of inner and outer worlds. Jo is an educator, a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner, was a Sundancer, a certified combat analyst,a student of martial arts, an avid hiker and swimmer. 

Jo is a mother of a son and a daughter- Denali (1988-2013) and Sequoia Schmidt, and former wife of the late USAF PJ, mountain guide and climber Martin W. Schmidt. (1960-2013)

Jo's non-fiction, technical writing and research is published in New Zealand, Australia, the USA, Pakistan, Russia, India, Iraq (in English) and online internationally.

Jo is a graduate of Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Massey University, and has her diploma from New Zealand School of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine. 

In addition, she earned a Third Class Radio Engineering License (NYC) and graduated from Circle-in-the-Square Professional Theatre School, New York City, USA in 1980. Jo was a member of all the professional unions including AEA, AFTRA, BTA and SAG. She was a professional in the performing arts as a choreographer/dancer/singer and actress in the USA, UK, Australia, and New Zealand in her early adult life.

Jo publishes her poetry and creative fiction under Jo Patti. In 1999, she was honored as a "Texas Artist for Life" by the Texas Commission on the Arts for her contributions in the fields of poetry, story telling and choreography. In 2005, she was awarded in New Zealand for her contributions to the Glistening Waters Storytelling Festival and in 2006, the New Zealand International Writers Group featured her as a reader and writer for their anthology, "World Words" published in collaboration with HeadWorX NZ. Her poems received special mention for their publication in the Di-Verse-City, Austin International Poetry Festival Anthologies for 2000, 2009, 2013 and 2015. 

In 2019, Joanne (Jo) was the first foreign female student to be awarded their Certificate of Honor from the Yun Tai International Martial Arts Training Center in Henan, China  for her achievements during the winter training sessions 2018-2019.