Janel Norton is a recent strategic communications graduate from the University of South Florida. Her photojournalism career began in 1989 when she joined the U.S. Air Force and she served five years for a Combat Camera unit. This unique opportunity provided her the opportunity to work and train not just with the U.S. military, but also with a variety of foreign militaries. She served as a photo editor during the first Gulf War in the Pentagon, and documented the invasion of Panama, humanitarian aid delivery to Azerbaijan and Armenia, the extraction of UN troops in Monrovia and the beginning of the war in the former Yugoslavia.
After returning to civilian life, she accepted a field service position with UNPROFOR, the largest UN operation of its kind involving 37 contributing nations. For two years, Janel traveled throughout Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and Kosovo with UN humanitarian aid convoys to document humanitarian relief efforts.
After leaving the UN mission, Janel attended Western Kentucky University where she received a double major in photojournalism and cultural anthropology. In 1999, she landed a position at the St. Petersburg Times as a photojournalist, and later became the senior photo editor of the North Suncoast region for the Times.
In 2008, Janel returned to work for the military, only this time as a civilian. As the Regional Magazine Initiative (RMI) photo editor, she was responsible for the visual content of six international quarterly magazines. The subject matter focused on current global matters such as human rights, regional security, human and drug trafficking, and tolerance issues.
In 2010, Janel decided to pursue a graduate degree in strategic communications management at USF and graduated in summer 2012. Her thesis research focus; Global CSR And Photographic Credibility: Exploring How International Companies Portray Efforts Through Photographs in CSR Reports.
Janel now lives in Tampa Bay, Florida with her husband Ray, and her 11-year old daughter Sayge.