B I O G R A P H Y
Janelle Bechdol is an artivist and social entrepreneur from New York. She is a founding partner and current president of the Hall Pass Tour, which leverages cultural influencers as a means to reach adolescents and help them find their jam. Despite having eight siblings, Janelle is the only biracial member of her family. Her biracial identity has molded her into a cultural broker, and drives her work of building a better world for the vulnerable.
Janelle is a former American Idol contestant and spent eight years leading education access on Ernst & Young’s Americas Corporate Responsibility and Talent Development teams. As a public speaker, musician and strategist,
Janelle works at the intersection of culture and media to take on transformational artivism projects with clients like XQ Institute, Harvard University and ZooLabs Music Accelerator. Her work has been featured in Fast Company, Harvard Magazine and on PBS. Janelle holds a master’s in Specialized Studies from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a B.A. in Communication and Rhetoric from SUNY Albany.
