Jeanette Millard '76. Photo by Beth Greely.
Tackling sensitive topics with strangers: the making of a master communicator
by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson
For more than 25 years, Jeanette Millard ’76 has guided corporations and professionals through a broad spectrum of challenging transitions, including global expansions, leadership shake-ups and broader cultural shifts. Then COVID-19 arrived, and the major changes she grappled with were the ones at her own front door.
What do you do when the in-person sessions you lead evaporate overnight, along with your livelihood? Millard’s solution: help fight the pandemic by applying her experience and skills in a new way.
Millard double-majored in religion and German at Dickinson, earned an M.A. in Germanic languages and literature from Tufts University and launched her career as a German-language teacher. While volunteering with Amnesty International in the U.S. and London, she discovered a new calling—organizational development. After earning an M.S. in that field and learning the ropes, Millard founded CJM Consulting in 1993.