Academic Biography
Janelle earned her PhD in Rhetoric, Composition, and the Teaching of English from the University of Arizona. At the University of Arizona she has taught Foundations Writing and Technical Writing courses in the Writing Program as a Graduate Teaching Associate, worked in the Disability Cultural Center as a Graduate Assistant, and has taught within the General Education department at UA as a lecturer.
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As a former community college student herself, Janelle has also worked in the community college setting as a writing specialist, embedded tutor, supplemental instructor, and adjunct writing instructor within various community colleges in both California and Arizona.
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Janelle's body of research within composition and writing studies focuses on accessible pedagogies and including disabled instructors in accessible classroom practices.
Disability Services Professional Biography
In addition to teaching and writing their dissertation, Janelle was formally a full-time staff member at the University of Arizona's Disability Resource Center (DRC) from Fall 2022 to Summer 2025. At the DRC she worked as an Access Consultant, a position that works closely with students individually to determine and put formal academic accommodations in place at the University. Janelle was onboarded as an Access Consultant in Fall 2022 after working at the Disability Cultural Center as a Graduate Assistant of Programing and Training from Summer 2021 to Fall 2022. As an Access Consultant at the DRC Janelle worked closely with academic departments heads, faculty, counselors, and other staff to ensure accommodations and accessibility are present for DRC affiliated students and campus community members. Janelle also pulled from their teaching background and frequently presented to different campus stakeholders and academic units about accessibility and DRC services throughout the University campus. She is also a member of the professional organization Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) and has presented research at their annual conference in 2022 and 2024.
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As an accessibility and disability scholar, Janelle has also been invited to create and facilitate a disability-focused workshop at a student resource center at Cornell University. Janelle has also been interviewed by the National Deaf Center affiliated with the University of Texas, Austin regarding their experience as a Hard of Hearing person working within disability student services.