Jo's Bio

Attorney Jo Kline is a graduate of Iowa State University and Drake University Law School. During her successful career as a lawyer and small business owner, Jo's focus was on real estate and federal tax law: In 1988, she opened Iowa's first real estate escrow company, Iowa Escrow; and the state's first 1031 tax-deferred exchange agency, Iowa Exchange, in 1996. For the past two decades, however, Jo's passion and mission have been focused on the issues of America's shifting demographics, systemic threats to health care access and patient rights to safe and accessible care. 

Like many of her followers and readers, Jo became interested in the issue of medical decision making after witnessing a loved one's challenging and chaotic health care journey. As a result, she came to be chair of Iowa's largest hospice and began to study in earnest the crucial role of advocacy in health care decision making. But it was a medical crisis of her own, years later, that taught Jo what it means to be truly health literate, and that led her to recognize the perfect storm now threatening health care access and patient safety for all Americans.

Jo had a simple goal when she began to write her most recent book, Patient or Pawn?: First, to explore the demographics of aging and chronic illness that jeopardize our rights to access, autonomy and safety in health care; and then to share strategies for patients' and providers' self-preservation. Relying on more than 500 scholarly and statistical resources, that's exactly what she has done.

Jo is also the author of The Practical Guide to Health Care Advance Directives, The 60-Minute Guide to Health Literacy and the award-winning SO GROWS THE TREE – Creating an Ethical Will. Among other print, online and broadcast media, Jo has been featured in The New York Times, Reader’s Digest, the American Bar Association's journal Bifocal, Healthcare Business Today, The Baltimore Sun, The Philadelphia Inquirer, HuffPost and LifeZette. She is a contributor to online news outlets, a frequent guest essayist for The DesMoines Register and the author of its 12-week series Health Literacy 101.

Jo Kline has now incorporated her unique expertise in demographics, the health care workforce and health literacy into an innovative initiative, Bridges to Health Care Access. To preserve rights to access, autonomy and safety, it's important to first appreciate what propels this perfect storm of demographics, dwindling resources and systemic fails. Through Bridges, Jo unveils the hard facts being ignored by leadership and the crucial strategies individuals can use to achieve best health outcomes. (See the "BRIDGES" page for more details.)

For media requests or speaking inquiries:

Contact Jo:  JoKline@msn.com

One-sheet for Jo Kline, J.D.

Press Release for Patient or Pawn?