Brown formerly served as the associate director at the USC Career Planning & Placement Center.

Photo/Irene Fertik

Janette C. Brown has been appointed executive director of the USC Emeriti Center by Provost C. L. Max Nikias. Brown, who began in the position on Aug. 22, succeeds Elizabeth “Betty” Redmon, who has retired.

“Our Emeriti Center under Betty Redmon has been acknowledged as the best in the country,” Nikias said. “I have already begun to work with Janette Brown to make the center even stronger. Retired faculty and staff are a vital and honored part of our academic community.”

Brown, who formerly served as the associate director at the USC Career Planning & Placement Center, is the Emeriti Center’s first full-time executive director. The position previously was held by James Peterson, Tillman Hall, Paul Hadley and Redmon.

Since 2000, she has been co-chair of professional development for USC’s Women and Management organization, which provides a forum for communication, professional development and career opportunities at the university.

Brown said she looks forward to increasing the visibility of the Emeriti Center, especially during the university’s 125th anniversary year.

“This is an exciting time to lead the center,” Brown said, “and to continue to demonstrate the value that its members provide, both to the university and to the community at large. Betty has provided a solid framework for the center’s future, and I look forward to building upon it.”

Brown joined USC’s Career Planning and Placement Center 10 years ago, first as a recruiting manager, then assistant director and most recently as its associate director. In that capacity, she established and managed the USC Experiential Learning Office and developed the USC Freeman Fellows Internship Program that places USC students in internships in 15 East Asian cities. She also managed the newly founded Mexico Summer Internship Program.

Brown now extends her background into lifelong career planning. She has “a passion for connecting people, ideas and opportunities” and looks forward to helping individuals, groups and projects reach their full potential.

As executive director, Brown serves the Emeriti College and two retiree associations at a time when they have recently launched a strategic plan focused on ways in which the university and its retiree community can most effectively serve each other.

She also inherits the executive director position for the Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education.

The Emeriti Center gives support to the Emeriti College, the Retired Faculty Association and the Staff Retirement Association while providing information, privileges, advocacy, recognition and opportunities for USC’s retired faculty and staff.

The center also helps smooth the transition between active employment and a new-life phase, and nurtures opportunities for a lifelong connection to USC.

Through the center, USC is also the secretariat for the binational Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education, founded by former director Paul Hadley.

Brown earned a B.A. in education from Whittier College, an M.A. from California State University at Los Angeles and an M.Ed. in Post-Secondary Administration and an Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration and Leadership, both from USC.

She has lectured for undergraduates at the USC Rossier School of Education on Theories of Career Development, conducted and presented research for national and international professional organizations, and created USC Internship Week, which serves more than 1,000 students each semester.