On an April morning nearly 20 years ago, during a lesson on Shakespeare, a student named Willie challenged Janelle to help him understand the relevance of what she was teaching to his life. He asked pointedly, “Why the *** does any of this matter to me?”

This young man had lost a lot of friends and family to gun violence and incarceration. He was missing many days of school and struggling academically in all of his classes. In his single question, though, he made it clear that his teachers, Janelle included, had done a poor job of identifying what his real needs were and failed at delivering learning opportunities that felt inclusive of his experiences and ones that provided a clear sense of relevance to his life.

Since that day, Janelle has committed herself to making amends to that young man by consistently improving in her work to co-create spaces where learners feel heard, valued, and supported by educators who have a strong grasp of culturally relevant and inclusive ways of being. A fourth-generation HBCU graduate and third-generation educator, Janelle feels privileged to serve as a Strategy Director for CCA and help create the kind of learning environments she had not created early in her career.

Since that time, Janelle’s professional roles have explored a wide range of opportunities to influence post-secondary education–from advising academically underprepared students to developing lesson plans for senior-level English classes at a research I institution to creating programming in conjunction with students in the Black Student Union to sharing student learning impact studies with the Board of Trustees. The diversity of her experiences has allowed her the chance to see opportunities for institutional growth and change from various vantage points and address systems-level needs for leadership and impact.

As a student of the humanities, avid crafter, and casual vocalist, Janelle brings an artist’s sensibility to her work in education. She believes in the transformative power of art to build more just, ethical, and inclusive learning communities – the very kind of spaces she hopes to help create through CCA.