• Jo Ann has served as secretary/ treasurer of the Cattlemen’s Association for 30 years. She remains the only woman on the organization’s board of directors and was the first woman ever honored as “Cattleman of the Year.”
• She helped introduce the idea of the western art show and has been heavily involved in all 19 events.
• Additionally, Jo Ann is active in the National Cattlemen Beef Association and San Luis Obispo County Farm Bureau.
• She serves on the Cal Poly Ag Advisory Council and on the board of directors for Miss Rodeo California.
• She is a founding member of the Cal Poly Rodeo Boosters and still serves on its board of directors.
• She created Cattlemen’s Day at the California State Fair in Sacramento and has been involved with the California Mid State Fair since its inception in 1946. She showed her first 4-H animals there, created the fair’s Cattlemen’s and Farmer’s Day, has served the fair’s board for eight years and has been the fair’s livestock superintendent the past four years.
• In 1992, she was one of just seventeen women in the U.S. who were chosen to represent USDA on a three-week fact-finding mission in South America.
• Professionally, Jo Ann managed Alex Madonna’s cattle operation for 10 years and has been employed at Farm Supply Company for 25 years.

Jo Ann was raised on the Arnold Family Ranch in Pozo and graduated from Atascadero High School and San Luis Obispo Junior College (now Cuesta). She has four sons, four daughter-in-laws and five grandchildren. A granddaughter had the Grand Champion Lamb at the 2006 California Mid State Fair and a grandson currently competes on the Cuesta College rodeo team.
Having the Western Art Show dedicated to her is the most recent of many honors Jo Ann has received. She has been inducted into the California Rodeo Hall of Fame, the California Mid State Fair Hall of Fame and the Cal Poly Animal Science Hall of Fame.
Jo Ann’s practice of wearing her favorite color every day has earned her the nickname “Purple Queen” among her friends, but her years of service to the agricultural community have embedded her with a reputation that will continue to inspire cattlemen and women for generations to come.