Alum Electra Janis Ushers in a New Generation of Leadership in Washington County
Electra Janis ’17, MAP’19, attends a meeting of the Washington County commissioners. (Courtesy of Electra Janis)
Electra Janis ’17, MAP ’19, is a third-generation Chatham University alum. She almost wasn’t.
“I was really honored to be able to go there, because my mother attended there and so did my grandmother,” she said.
After graduating high school early, she came to Chatham to study psychology. She intended to transfer to a university in Florida a year later.
“But I fell in love with the program, and I knew I wanted to have a psychology education, so I ended up staying for the full undergrad program and got my masters there,” Janis said.
She wanted to be what she called a “stereotypical” therapist—the person you see in movies who tells their patient to lie down on the couch and lay out their problems.
“That’s what I thought I wanted to do, always been that since day one. I wanted a private practice type of setting,” she said.
Janis got to try some of that while at Chatham. Her practicum involved working in pediatric psychology; many clients there spoke only Spanish, a unique opportunity for the bilingual psych student.
“My practicum was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had,” she said.
She obtained her Master of Arts in Psychology (MAP), but after working as the district director for state Representative Natalie Mihalik, her lifelong interest in politics became a career.
“I had been working in her office for a couple of months, and I think I just showed that drive and motivation, leadership and responsibility,” Janis said. “She was a strong woman. I believed in her and what she was doing.”
Prior to that position, politics were a passion her family instilled in her by attending local events and fundraisers for area politicians. Running for office or working in the government weren’t things she considered doing herself.
“I think people are hungry for a change, a new generation of leadership.”
But working with Mihalek introduced her to the nuts and bolts of passing legislation and handling constituents’ concerns.
“I would go to Harrisburg with her, I would sit in on budget hearings, I would help her with drafting legislation,” she said. “I would also do things in the community, where I would serve as her liaison when she was in Harrisburg and unable to attend events.”
And like everyone else, the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything about the job. No one in the office knew how long life would be changed by the novel virus. As time went on, constituents became increasingly frustrated with difficulties in obtaining information about unemployment compensation from the state.
“Our office phone calls were forwarded to my cell phone,” she said. “People were calling about unemployment issues out the wazoo.
“I was taking calls on weekends. I was taking calls at six in the morning, two in the morning. […] Unless I turned my phone off, it was going to ring,” she continued.
It was stressful, but also fulfilling, she said, and an unexpected way in which she found herself falling back on the skills she learned in Chatham’s psychology program. Some people seemed to just want to talk to a real person, rather than waiting weeks for a letter from the commonwealth.
“Am I supposed to just ask standard questions and get the claim and hang up? Yes, but when you have someone who can’t even get their social security number out to you, because they can’t stop crying, because they’re unemployed, because they need to feed their family … you can’t just be like, ‘OK, what’s that social again?’
“You have to comfort them in some way. I’m thankful I had the skills and was equipped to be able to do that,” Janis said.
At one point, she hoped to run for Mihalek’s seat in the general assembly when the representative decided she was ready to move on from the position. But after Mihalek told her she would run for another term, Janis eventually set her sights on another position: the Washington County commissionership.
Diana Irey Vaughn, who served as a commissioner in the county since 1995, announced she would step down in 2023. When Janis heard this, she wondered if that seat might be her next step, but she didn’t yet think of uttering the idea to anyone. Thinking of running for election, she said, was “crazy talk.”
Then, in a matter of hours, six people—including her boss, her brother, and a state senator—told her she should consider it.
And so, she did. Janis went on to win the general election in November, and she was sworn in in January.
“I do have leadership skills and fresh ideas, and I think the people who came to me and told me to do this truly believed in me,” she said. “I hope I can continue to prove them correct and say that I’ve done everything I can to do the best I can do in this role.”
Since her election, she’s fixed her eyes on a few major goals around tackling the ongoing opioid epidemic, the mental health crisis, and public safety.
“I think people are hungry for a change, a new generation of leadership,” Janis said.
Learn more about Chatham University’s psychology program, which offers bachelor-, master-, and doctorate-level degrees, and explore Chatham’s commitment to women’s leadership and gender equity at chatham.edu.