Janis Burley Wilson is a native of Penn Hills, a suburban community east of Pittsburgh. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in rhetoric and communications and Hispanic language and culture. She had aspirations of being a newscaster on Spanish television. After an internship with Family Communications at WQED, she went back to Pitt for a master’s degree in elementary education. She worked for Pittsburgh Public Schools as an elementary and middle school teacher for several years. She was at American University in Washington, D.C., studying for a Ph.D. in education administration in 2002, when the opportunity came to move back to Pittsburgh and work for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. In addition to her work at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Wilson launched the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival in 2011.