Janean Jorgensen Schmidt combines words, images and designs to tell intriguing stories. Her full-time multimedia work for Gonzaga’s School of Engineering & Applied Science is visible at gonzaga.com/seas.
Why this portfolio is under construction
Deeper Dive with JJS
Janean documents and celebrates work done by anyone involved with Gonzaga University’s School of Engineering & Applied Science (SEAS). She helps explain the degree programs, posts stories and photos on gonzaga.edu/seas. She curates events and information specifically of interest to SEAS students and faculty at my.gonzaga.edu/seas.
She came to Spokane for the Zag life (before basketball was big). She was the youngest Editor in Chief of the Bulletin (first edition on her 19th birthday), DJ’d at KAGU when it was still an indie-rock station, and performed four shows in what would become the Magnuson Theatre.
On her first GU graduation day, she grabbed her journalism diploma and ran over to Spokane Civic Theatre for her dress rehearsal of Brigadoon. She’s been deeply involved with Inland Northwest performing arts ever since — sometimes as a performer, sometimes as a promoter, and always as a cheerleader.
The day after that graduation, Oldies 101.1 added her to the DJ lineup. She learned about marketing there, then honed those marketing skills over a decade at Spokane Public Radio. Her career brought together promotions, graphic design, magazine content, direct mail, email, web, photography, image editing, graphic design, video and voice. Highlights include web support for National Public Radio (in Washington, D.C.), spending time with minor celebrities such as Paula Poundstone, Fred Newman and Ira Glass, and creating/hosting/producing her Broadway Matinee weekly radio show of songs from the stage and screen.
Her second degree from Gonzaga, the Master of Communication and Leadership, inspired her to see her skills as tools for building community. A highlight was the Gonzaga in Cali, Colombia immersion. She is a member of Alpha Sigma Nu (the Jesuit Honor Society) and Lambda Pi Eta (the National Communication Association).
Communication By Design 