Janelle Hannah Jefferson, Ph.D., (she/her/hers)currently serves as an alliance engagement director for Complete College America. In her most recent previous assignment, she served as the project lead/program manager at NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising, working on various projects concerning the Advising Success Network (ASN). Previously, she also worked in various positions at Jackson State University (JSU), where she earned her undergraduate degree and graduate degrees, where she served as the academic ombudsman/special assistant to the provost in the Division of Academic Affairs, director of the University Academic Advisement Center, the coordinator of advisement/chief academic advisor, and establishing director of the Academic Enhancement Center for student-athletes. For over 17 years, Dr. Jefferson wrote curriculum and taught University Success, the benchmark course for the First Year Experience program at JSU. Through her work at JSU, she has also served with NACADA as the HBCU advising community chair, a site member for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Frontier Set, as well as a Frontier Set Advising team member, and advocate for “Black Student Success.”

Janelle is an honor graduate of Jackson State University. She is married to her college sweetheart, Reginald, and they have four children, Hart Isaac, Jacob Langston, Brooklynn Elizabeth, and Reginald Elijah, and one fur baby, Adonis. The family currently resides in Jackson, MS.