Janet Dewart Bell, Director of Communications

Janet has been a communications and management consultant specializing in policy advocacy, strategic planning, executive and staff training, and education. She has been a key strategist and senior executive at a number of national organizations including PolicyLink, the National Urban League, and National Public Radio (NPR). While a Visiting Research Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, she developed and taught a course in Effective Advocacy.

As Director of Communications at PolicyLink, Bell was instrumental in developing the organization’s collaborative approach to advocacy and communications. She was the Director of Communications at the National Urban League, where she redesigned, edited, and marketed the League’s signature annual publication, The State of Black America. The first Director of Specialized Programs at NPR, she helped increase diversity by recruiting and training women and people of color as producers and on-air talent.

She is the former Director of Communications and Public Relations for District Council 37 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFL-CIO) in New York City, working with over 50 local unions. As the Communications Director for the National Committee on Household Employment, she helped secure federal minimum wage coverage for domestic workers.