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After completing her Master’s thesis at the August Cieszkowski Agricultural University in Poznan, Poland, under the supervision of Professor Marek Switonski, Joanna pursued a PhD position funded by the German Research Foundation in the Plant Cell Biology group led by Professor Karin Krupinska and relocated to Kiel, Germany. Her PhD studies focused on characterizing the DNA-protein complexes present in chloroplasts. She obtained her PhD degree in February 2011.

In October 2012, Joanna relocated to Perth, Western Australia to start postdoctoral work at The University of Western Australia in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology under the guidance of Professor Ian Small. Since 2014, her research has shifted to plant mitochondria, specifically to a group of proteins know as Restorer-of-Fertility-like (RFL). Rf proteins are crucial for the development of hybrid varieties and are of great agronomic importance.

Joanna successfully collaborates with Groupe Limagrain, the world's fourth-largest seed-producing company, on the identification and characterization of restorer genes in wheat. Additionally, through collaboration with Professor Nils Stein from The Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) in Gatersleben, Germany, she has contributed to the characterization and annotation of the PPR/RFL family in the reference genome of bread wheat and became a member of the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium. Joanna also collaborates with Professor David Jordan and Dr. Emma Mace from the University of Queensland, as well as Professor Adam Lukaszewski from the University of California, Riverside (to name a few).