Janet Sanders joins Kellogg as assistant dean for Alumni Relations

In January, the Kellogg School welcomed Janet Sanders as assistant dean and director of Alumni Relations. 

In a short time, Sanders — formerly the senior director of alumni marketing and communications at Harvard Business School — has met with alumni far and wide, at Kellogg Impact Series events in Hong Kong and London and at gatherings across the United States and Mexico. 

	Janet Sanders (center) Photo © Simon Jarrat

Their passion for Kellogg, she noted, has been unmistakable.

"Our alumni are very enthusiastic about Kellogg and about their experience as students," Sanders said. "They are telling us they want more from the school and they want us to ask more of them — which is great, because alumni play a key role in advancing Kellogg on so many fronts: helping us to recruit top students and hiring students and alumni, to name just a few."

While at HBS, Sanders provided strategic and creative direction for the school's external relations program, including the communications platform for the school's $500 million capital campaign and marketing campaigns for key alumni programs.  At Kellogg, she succeeds Associate Dean Ed Wilson '84, who retired in July.

Sanders' goals for Kellogg Alumni Relations include strengthening the alumni network and fostering meaningful connections between alumni and the school. That involves creating more alumni networking opportunities and letting alumni know how they can best support Kellogg.

"I've often found that alumni want to help but don't always know how," Sanders said. "So we have to communicate better about the ways to be involved with Kellogg and make it easy, too.

"Our goal, ultimately, is to strengthen the network. I know there's lots of competition for our alumni's attention, so our offerings have to be meaningful — professionally, socially, even philanthropically. There are a wealth of ideas and opportunities in this community, and we want to unlock that to unleash the potential of Kellogg."

Prior to her work at HBS, Sanders held a variety of positions in communications, development and alumni relations at Babson College.  She holds a bachelor's degree in American history from the University of Rochester and has completed coursework on leadership, adult development and strategic marketing management at Harvard University.