Talking with Janice Udogu,
Straz Center development database coordinator
As part of our 30-year anniversary season, we are also celebrating the people behind the scenes at The
Straz who are marking 30-year anniversaries, too. Janice Udogu, development database coordinator,
celebrates 30 years with The Straz this season. She has seen it all, from the opening of our doors to the
building of the Patel Conservatory to our current state of bursting at the seams with outreach, shows,
education and attendance. We put her in the center spotlight so you can get to know a little bit about our
longest-serving employee.
Q. How did you get started at the Straz Center?
A. I earned my Associate degree in bookkeeping from a business college but was having a hard time finding a job.
My husband ran into the HR person for the school and told her about my situation. So, she set me up with an
interview at The Straz. The rest, as they say, is history.
Q. What’s always in your refrigerator?
A. Milk and eggs
Q. What is your worst quality?
A. Being overprotective. Because of that, I have a hard time letting go.
Q. What music is on your playlist?
A. Gospel
Q. What’s your sign and what does it say about you?
A. Virgo. I pay very close attention to detail which ultimately results in helping so many people.
Q. Read any good books lately?
A. Yes, the Bible. Here is one of my favorite verses.
Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD,
“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and
a future.”
Q. Cat person or dog person?
A. Dog
Q. What’s the greatest thing since sliced bread?
A. My family
Q. What’s your “guilty pleasure” television show?
A. Braxton Family Values
Q. In the movie version of your life, who would play you?
A. Myself
Q. Who or what inspires you?
A. I would have to say two people: my mother, Pauline
Lane, and my grandmother, Margaret Wells, who is
no longer with us.
Q. If you hadn’t chosen this career, what other
career path do you think you’d
have followed?
A. Something in the medical field, where I’d have
a chance to make a change in someone’s life
for the better. When you’re sick, you just want
help, and I think I would have been good at
being there for people.
Photo by Rob/Harris Productions, Inc.