Janel received her undergraduate degree in Speech and Hearing Sciences from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her graduate degree and special education teaching credential in Communicative Disorders from the University of Redlands. Her educational emphasis and professional focus have always been in the area of language-based learning disabilities and challenges. She began her career teaching upper elementary students with severe language disorders in the Claremont, California public schools where she remained for almost 10 years until her own family began to grow. For the past 20 plus years, she has had a private language and educational therapy practice in Pasadena, is a learning specialist at two independent elementary schools in the San Gabriel Valley and is a consulting educational therapist at the Center for Connection.