Janet Hartzell joined the staff of Community Church in December, 2009, as Associate Pastor (half-time) while she also served half-time at The United Methodist Church of Whitefish Bay, where she began in ministry in 2004. She came on staff fulltime on July 1, 2010, when Pastor John Wells was appointed as lead pastor. Janet (or "PJ" as some call her, for "Pastor Janet") is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and received her M.Div. from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, both in Evanston, Illinois. A Columbus, Ohio native, Janet is the daughter of musicians and has always appreciated the arts, especially theater and music, and as a child she dreamed of becoming an actress. She moved to Milwaukee after seminary and for over 20 years had a career as a marketing and public relations executive for non-profit arts organizations in the area, including First Stage Children's Theater, the Milwaukee Ballet and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Once an "ingenue" (believe it or not!), she acted with such groups as Milwaukee Players, Shorewood Players and Dale Gutzman productions, with her favorite roles being "Emily" in Our Town, "Luisa" in The Fantasticks and roles in several Stephen Sondheim musicals. She met her husband Mark on a chance encounter at Summerfest, and they have been married since 1986. They have two sons, Andrew (a senior at the University of Minnesota) and Jonathan (a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison), and a wonderful dog named Dixie, who came from Alabama. The Hartzells live in Brown Deer.