Janet Thompson Jackson

Janet Thompson Jackson is an educator, mentor, consultant to nonprofits and entrepreneurs, mindfulness leader, inclusion and belonging collaborator, and a yoga and self-care guide. She has been a member of the law faculty of Washburn University School of Law since 2004, where she directs the Small Business and Nonprofit Law Clinic, teaches Nonprofit Law, and is helping to lead the law school’s new initiative, Third Year Anywhere™. For the 2018-2019 academic year, Janet was a visiting professor with the Law Faculty of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, where she taught an Honours College Masterclass on Leadership Through Collaboration; co-taught Legal English; gave presentations on diversity, belonging, and implicit bias; and spoke at the 405th Lustrum Conference on “Inclusion and the Path to Peace.” During her visit in the Netherlands she also was a guest lecturer at the University of Amsterdam’s PPLE College on the topic of “Academia and Civil Society.”

Janet’s scholarship is the areas of nonprofit law; entrepreneurial law; race, culture, diversity and belonging; and leading with mindfulness. She is a frequent speaker in the areas of nonprofit law and governance, diversity and belonging, and mindfulness. When in Kansas Janet is a host on the monthly public television community affairs series, I’ve Got Issues on KTWU-TV. Prior to teaching, Janet practiced civil litigation and communications law. She then joined the nonprofit sector, where for the past 25 years she has served in the roles of executive director, nonprofit law educator, nonprofit consultant and strategist, and board member.

Janet seeks to maintain harmony in her professional and personal life and encourages her students to do the same. She values time spent with her husband, daughter, and friends and enjoys traveling, reading, and taking on new challenges. And even on her busiest days you can find Janet on her yoga mat.