Alumni Spotlight

Janice Daue Walker ’85

The nonprofit organization Rebuilding Together has played a significant role in the career of Janice Daue Walker ’85. She got her start there serving on its D.C. board before going on to serve on its national board and then on its Boston board. She left the organization and became a vice president of corporate communications at USPS. Walker returned to Rebuilding Together in 2022 as the executive director of the Boston affiliate, where she does everything from writing grants and planning upcoming Rebuild projects to speaking with homeowners, sponsors, and accountants.

“Rebuilding Together Boston’s mission is to repair homes, revitalize communities, and rebuild lives,” said Walker. “We have a vision for a safe and healthy home for every person, and we do this at no cost to the recipients, whether they’re a homeowner or a nonprofit facility.” 

In just this past year, two of her projects have attracted the attention of local media: they were featured on the PBS program Ask This Old House, and during Veterans’ Day weekend last year, they were featured on a local CBS station for their work at a veterans’ facility in Lowell, Massachusetts with Lockheed Martin. 

“Chris Tanaka was the anchor who came out, and he’s subsequently become a big champion of ours. It was a great experience, and it was really cool to see that program air,” Walker said.

“The beauty of the liberal arts education is that it teaches you skills that you can apply in almost any kind of job. Even though I had a political science interest in college, and I thought that’s where my career would go, my first job out of college was working for the National Association of Broadcasters in their government relations division. 

After a year in D.C. focusing on government relations, I became much more interested in communications, and I felt that I would have more career opportunities and experiences if I switched to a communications field. And I discovered that’s really where my interest was before becoming the executive director of Rebuilding Together Boston,” Walker said.

Katharine Greenlee Henning ’11

After graduation, Katharine Greenlee Henning ’11 started her career at an international nonprofit before moving to the corporate sector, supporting brand strategy and event planning. She was involved in brand activations of all sizes, including events featuring First Lady Michelle Obama, Trevor Noah, and other high-profile people. She managed social media teams in the U.S. and abroad while earning an MBA from the Kogod School of Business at American University. But Henning didn’t come across her true passion until 2023 — planning weddings and events for her own small business, Island Creek Events.

Towards the end of her time in the corporate sector, Henning was heavily involved in the planning of two very important weddings: her sister’s and her own. While she was exploring new career opportunities, she submitted photos from her sister’s wedding to the Chesapeake Bay Wedding Magazine under the name Island Creek Events. This submission caught the eye of the publication and earned her a full spread in the magazine. This publicity came as a pleasant surprise to Henning, who had to put together a website for her new business quickly. 

“I literally built the brand and the website that afternoon and launched the website that night,” she recalled. “The issue went live, and by the end of that week, I had two clients. By the end of 2023, I had done 23 events.” 

What Henning initially anticipated would be a side hustle grew into a full-time operation, planning, coordinating, and executing 40 weddings and events during her second year in business.

Through this endeavor, she has had the chance to connect with new and old friends, and among her clientele are several Washington College alumni. “I feel like everything that I’ve experienced along the way has given me the tools to grow and excel in this space. I think my Shore roots have helped, too, since I naturally have a lot of wonderful connections through Washington College.”

Island Creek Events shows no sign of slowing down, with a nearly full slate of weddings booked for 2025, and Henning has won four industry and community “Best Of” awards in the past year. She credits Washington for her entrepreneurial success. 

“I talk a lot about how the business and liberal arts sides of my education married together so well. It gave me the tools to quickly learn, grow, adapt, and be ready for whatever business challenge I end up facing,” Henning said.

Jack Taylor ’13

Jack Taylor ’13 has always been the kind of person who chases his curiosity and leans into different pursuits. When he graduated from Washington College, he decided to explore multiple career paths right out of the gate. He simultaneously freelanced for ESPN and CBS as a statistician, worked at a commercial real estate brokerage, and served as the head racquets pro at the L’Hirondelle Club of Ruxton. These career choices paralleled Taylor’s interests at Washington, where he was a business management major and played on the men’s tennis team. 

     “Washington College taught me to lean into my intellectual curiosity and the notion of writing my life story and not letting someone else write it,” he said. After chasing racquets as a tennis and platform tennis pro, Taylor ultimately decided that he wanted to focus on commercial real estate. “More or less, I just started leaning on relationships, going to a lot of coffee meetings, and stuff like that. This culminated in meeting my current business partner, Laurence Oster.” 

In September of 2019, Taylor joined Oster at Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis (CBRE). Together, they’ve been building CBRE’s retail practice for over five years, mainly working in the Maryland, Washington D.C., and Northern Virginia areas. 

“It’s very intense, it’s very competitive, it’s very fast-paced, it’s a long-term relationship-driven business,” Taylor said. “It’s about constantly reinventing yourself and demonstrating your value proposition on a day-in and day-out basis.” 

He feels these values were instilled at Washington. Taylor remains very involved with the College. 

“It’s a parallel that reflects the liberal arts experience. We’re taught to be lifelong learners, and just because I graduated in May of 2013 doesn’t mean that had to be the end of my time here,” he said. “For me, my four years here were just the beginning of my relationship with Washington College, not the end,” Taylor said.