Welcome to my Home Page!

HI everyone, my name is Jan and I work on the Client Success team as the Senior Director of Client Engagement. My focus here at Blackboard is understanding the client experience and working to improve it. I work in our Washington, DC office. Here is some information about me.

How long have I worked at Blackboard?

I joined the company in July 1999. I can't believe my 9th anniversary is coming up. I'll be celebrating it at BbDevCon.

Why do I like working at Blackboard?

The people here are so creative, hardworking, and energizing and that is continues to fuel my own enthusiasm. But working with our clients is what keeps me alive. I love hearing about and seeing the impact the Blackboard solutions on the teaching and learning experience. We really are making a difference in millions of peoples' lives and it is tough to beat that!

Where do I hale from?

I'm a second-generation Washingtonian. I was born in Washington, DC and raised in Rockville, MD in the DC suburbs. Now I live on Capitol Hill and take metro to work.

What do I actually do here at Blackboard?

I do lots of things which makes it challenging for me to describe in a few words. My work and that of my team focuses on 3 main areas:

Community initiatives to grow and deepen our relationships with clients and among clients
- User Groups and community outreach initiatives
- Best practice identification and dissemination
- Blackboard Exemplary Course Program
Business process optomization which allows us to understand and improve our internal processes and workflows so that clients experience a seamless experience at all stages of their interactions with us
- documenting and measuring the handoffs from one group to another within a process
- identifying areas to streamline business process and workflows
Data analysis so we can make decisions based on empirical data and predictive models to improve the client experience
- measure and manage staff priorities using data
- create executive dashboards and other tools to better manage the business
- create predictive models for a variety of challenges (e.g., staffing, call volume, adoption)

I also take lots of photos at Blackboard events so you may have seen me with my camera.

What did I do before I worked here?

Before I came to Blackboard I worked at Booz, Allen & Hamilton, a large consulting company. I was a project manager on a number of environmental-related contracts with the EPA, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Defense and more.

Prior to joining Booz Allen I worked as a contractor on NASA's Mission to Planet Earth as a science specialist. My specialty was remote sensing and image analysis and I used this knowledge to work with Earth Scientists from around the world to develop a data system to store, manage and make discoverable pedabytes of Earth Science data (e.g., satellite images, atmospheric chemistry, rainfall records, ice core, tree ring data and more). Saving planet Earth was never so much fun!

Stop talking about Blackboard! What else to you like doing?

I love hanging out with my husband Charles and our Airedale terrier Gemma. I enjoy urban walks, digital photography, homebrewing, knitting and making sausage. When I'm not doing any of those things I'm usually updating my blog or tweeting.