About jodi

Jodi is a Georgia native, but also the great-granddaughter of Astilladore Diodati, a chicken farmer, who legally immigrated from Italy to America in the early 1900's.  

Jodi's maternal grandparents had a small farm, too, but her grandmother worked in the local textile mill as a creeler and her grandfather worked with the Georgia DOT building state roads. He traveled around the country building highways and city infrastructure, as well.  

Both of Jodi's parents were in the Army; her dad a food inspector and her mom an RN. After they left military life, her mother stayed home full-time with Jodi and her three sisters while her father started his own concrete pouring company.  

 "I have vivid memories as a kid scraping the concrete splatter off his glasses when he got home at night.  But my fondest memories were summer days riding shotgun in his truck going to check on the job."   

Jodi's family went to St. Mary's Catholic Church every Sunday and she was taught at the church's school.   

"I formed a strong foundation for my faith in God in all those classrooms and corridors. I also learned the appreciation of working hard and cherishing our great country with all our God-given freedoms." 

"I consider myself blue-collar from a working class family. Whatever I'm working on, I jump right in, roll up my sleeves and "get my hands dirty". "   

From her first job at 13 working at Baskin-Robbins to summer jobs at Six Flags over Georgia, Jodi learned very early the value of putting in a good day's work and being rewarded with that paycheck at the end of the week.  After graduating from the University of South Carolina, Jodi joined her dad's construction company to answer the phones, open the mail, and do payroll. 

Today, she is now the General Contractor for her dad's company, overseeing multi-million dollar commercial projects. Jodi also has her real estate license with Johnny Walker Realty and enjoys being a Buyers Agent in the residential sector. Occasionally, Jodi is a scenic painter in Atlanta's booming movie industry, where incidentally, she met her husband and he works full-time. 

This year is also special for Jodi as 2022 marks her 25th anniversary as a television host, having taught and shared home improvement projects and products on networks like HGTV, Turner Broadcasting and The Weather Channel.

Jodi and her husband, Jason, have lived in DeKalb County over 6 years and enjoy being a part of their East Atlanta community. They have two adult daughters; Jodi's daughter lives in Roswell with her husband, and Jason's daughter splits her time with them here in Atlanta and Argentina.   

Jodi and Jason love their church community at Mount Paran Church and worship regularly. Jodi truly feels blessed in the ability to give her time, talent and treasure to projects like ATL: CityConcern and organizations who strive to help others. One of her favorites is Samaritan's Purse, founded on the mission to "Go and do likewise."  

Jodi and Jason also share three dogs; two Pitbulls and a Jack Russell. Jodi supports The Blue Boys Pitbull charity, and gives to the DeKalb and Cobb County Animal Shelters, where she rescued her two pitties.