Janet has been involved with the Shambhala community since 1979. She first encountered Shambhala in Lexington Kentucky, when she was a graduate student in Anthropology at the University of Kentucky. In 1982 she moved to New York CIty and joined the New York Dharmadhatu there. She attended the Vajradhatu seminary in 1983 in Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania. In 1984 she moved to Birmingham Alabama, where she still lives.

In Birmingham she became a faculty member at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health from 1986 to 2016, and is now an emeritus professor. She worked in medical anthropology, and conducted research on health services and health policy for underserved populations. She also taught courses in public health ethics and public health policy.

Janet helped start the Birmingham Shambhala Meditation Center in 1998 and has been a meditation instructor and teacher at the center since. She served as the Shastri for the center from 2016 to 2019. In 2018 she joined the Shambhala Process Team and was happy to have supported the Shambhala community through its various crises and transformations. Currently she volunteers in various ways in the Shambhala community.