Janelle Gibson

Janelle Barker Gibson’s career reflects 25 years of practice in human services and healthcare. Focusing on macro level interventions, Janelle’s career reflects the intersectionality of a social work career, centering community health and well-being, public policy, and organizational management.

Prior to joining the Brown School, Janelle had professional practice career spanning child welfare, policy practice as a registered lobbyist in Missouri and Illinois, foundation management, fund development, healthcare promotion and training, and board membership with organizations in both St. Louis, Missouri and Seattle, Washington.  While spending several years working in the healthcare sector she focused on development, dissemination and training on disease state and pharmaceutical management protocols for medical professionals and administrators.

As an instructor since 2009, Professor Gibson has served as course lead for both Human Behavior in the Social Environment, as well as Social Work Practice with Organizations and Communities.  She also teaches courses at the intersection of sociology, policy and economics.  She serves as a frequent instructor for the Brown School’s Professional Development coursework in management and leadership. As such, she has been recognized twice for excellence in teaching and was honored to lecture at Fudan University in Shanghai, China on the topic of nonprofit management and social entrepreneurship.

Ms. Gibson is currently Special Advisor to the Dean, where she is focused on activities tied to accreditation and continuous quality improvement for the MSW Program. Previously, Janelle served as the Assistant Dean for the MSW Program.  In this role she managed course scheduling, completed the self-study for the program’s reaccreditation efforts, and facilitated curriculum continuity through curriculum redesign efforts.

She is the author of Social, Economic, and Political Environments for Social Work Practice which was published in 2023 by Cognella Publishing.  She is co-author of A Founder’s Story, a case study published in the Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership.  She is also a reviewer for Voluntas International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Management, and a textbook reviewer for Pearson Publishing.  

Since 2007, she has provided management consulting services for nonprofit organizations throughout St. Louis as Principal for ChangeMakers Consulting.

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