Janel is the co-founder and CEO of the Ichigo Foundation, a small foundation that focuses on college access and success for people from under-resourced communities. She lived in Japan for 26 years, and moved to Brooklyn in 2020 to begin running the foundation. While in Japan she received a masters degree in school counseling and worked for five years as a counselor at an international high school and as a part-time college advisor at a number of Japanese high schools. Janel has four adult children and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

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