Director of Strategic Communications Janelle Browning credits her favorite high-school English teacher with inspiring the focus of her career. She explains, “She taught me so much about how powerful words could be to effectively convey meaning, helping me to both understand and connect with other people.” Those lessons proved invaluable in helping her set her course for her education and beyond.

Janelle went on to pursue both undergraduate and graduate degrees in English. She attended college in her home state of Missouri at Truman State University, and earned her master’s degree at Colorado State University, where she added a focus on women’s studies, and taught courses to undergraduate students to formally introduce them to feminist theory.

Janelle began her career in higher education down the street from Winsor at Berklee College of Music. For more than two decades she worked in external affairs, ultimately as senior director of communications and marketing, overseeing the teams responsible for brand communications and marketing for the school. She came to Winsor in 2023, and cites her interview with Class VI students as the deciding factor in her choice to shift to secondary education. “Those four students were so smart, articulate, curious, and above all, just so confident. I had expected to feel like I was having lunch with kids, but they were so much more mature than I had anticipated.” The interesting questions the students asked and the thoughtful answers they offered made clear to Janelle what she had already suspected: Winsor is an amazing place to work. She loved the idea of being part of a place that helps students develop that sense of confidence in themselves, and happily joined the leadership team at Winsor.

At Winsor, Janelle oversees the communications team, which seeks to engage and inform the community and support the school’s strategic goals. She continues to be impressed daily by the students, as well as the skilled faculty and staff who play such an instrumental role in their experience at Winsor. She particularly enjoys the small size of the school, noting how students are able to be seen and understood as individuals, and given the room to develop—and use—their voices every day.