Age: 39
Job Title: Vice President of Resource Development, Junior Achievement of Northern Alberta and NWT
Why She’s Top 40: She’s helping raise millions of dollars to support education and mentorship programs.
What Do You Like Most About Edmonton?: “The sense of community. There’s a lot of people in this city that are passionate about it and want to make it a great place.”
Janice Moore has the kind of luminescent enthusiasm that fills up every corner of the room, and that energy bubbles over when she’s discussing mentorship.
“I’m a big supporter of mentorship,” she says. “Mentorship has played a big role in my life and in my personal career.” She shares this passion through her work as Vice President of Resource Development of the Northern Alberta and NWT chapter of the Junior Achievement organization, where she secures resources for programs that prepare students for the workforce.
She understands the impact the program has on the lives of young people with a penchant for business. “I had taken a Junior Achievement program in junior high. I think that it really influenced my decision on my career path into business,” she says.
Prior to her work with Junior Achievement, Moore served as senior fund development officer at NorQuest College. There, she led such initiatives as the One Thousand Women: A Million Possibilities program, which raises funds for an emergency financial assistance fund for students, and the Youth in Transition Mentorship program, which helps prepare ESL students for life in Canada. Following that, she served as development officer at NAIT, where she nearly tripled her fundraising goal in her first fiscal year.
The prospect of raising funds for a living might be intimidating for some, but Moore’s firm belief in enhancing the community overpowers any nerves. “I’ll never forget the first individual that I asked for half a million dollars,” she says with a laugh. “Essentially you’re asking for it and they’re getting nothing concrete back in return, but they’re getting these results that are just amazing. You have to believe in what you do. I knew this donor; she believed that education was a human right. I knew she had the means and wanted to make a big difference in the community. And she did.”
Not one to rest on her laurels, Moore is already focused on the projects that lie ahead of her, including putting together a 50th anniversary celebration of Junior Achievement’s Northern Alberta branch. “I know that no matter where my career takes me, I’ll always have to have some element of community within it,” she says. “That’s never going to stop.”
