Janelle Nanos is a writer, editor, and journalism professor in Boston. She was raised on Long Island, New York, but thankfully does not have an accent. She attended Boston College and earned her masters degree in Journalism from New York University, where she helped launch the Livewire news service and was awarded a Knight Foundation Fellowship for her outstanding reporting. She is currently a senior editor at Boston Magazine, and teaches a course in magazine writing at her alma mater, Boston College.

At the outset of her career, Nanos worked as a reporter at New York Magazine where she covered a litany of subjects, among them: Wall Street floor brokers, nanny surveillance techniques, exploding manhole covers, 9/11 conspiracy theories, cancer survivors, senior citizen karaoke, dog-leash law wars, eldercare services, cold case detectives, presidential politics and celebrity gossip. She was regular contributor to the magazine’s “Intelligencer” news and “Strategist” service sections, as well as special issues on Travel, Best of New York, Best Doctors and the Wedding Guides.

She then moved to Washington D.C. to take the role of Assistant Editor for Special Projects at National Geographic Traveler magazine, where she contributed editing and writing to both the magazine and website, and ran the Intelligent Travel blog. Under her guidance, the blog was awarded the best consumer travel blog award from Lonely Planet and was named best travel blog from the North American Travel Journalists Association. While at National Geographic, she also co-chaired an internal think tank that aimed to promote the Society to Gen-Y readers and worked closely with colleagues throughout the society to develop social media strategies and other opportunities to reach new audiences.

In spring of 2011, she returned to Boston, where she now edits and writes feature stories for Boston Magazine. Among her varied interests are higher education, public policy, health care, technology, travel, design, food, and politics. She also continues to write regularly for national publications and contributes travel coverage to various publications on a regular basis.

Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, D.C. Magazine, Newsday, Slate, Marie Claire, The Village Voice, Forbes.com, Mother Jones, City Limits, Travel + Leisure Family, The NYU Alumni Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, and Nerve.com, among other publications.

Janelle lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and enjoys running, photography, and cooking, though not at the same time.

[Photo: Speaking with the Fantastic Soulernaires for a New York Times article on the Gospel in Harlem USA festival. By Piotr Redlinski]