Meet Janine Vanderburg

A longtime community activist, Janine Vanderburg is leading Changing the Narrative CO, a campaign started in 2018 to change the way people think, talk, and act about aging and ageism.

In 2019, Janine created the Age-Friendly Workplace Initiative to reframe older workers’ positions in businesses and to make businesses more aware of the benefits of intergenerational workplaces. She also founded On the Same Page, a campaign to encourage intergenerational conversations about ageism. Janine partnered with the local PBS station to produce and broadcast a series of intergenerational conversations about current and important topics, including the role of the arts in advancing social justice, digital divides during COVID-19, health equity, and ageism.

Prior to Changing the Narrative CO, Janine led Joining Vision and Action, the social sector consulting firm that she founded in 1987, providing community assessment, research, strategic and business planning, fundraising, and evaluation services to change-makers. Janine served two terms on the Denver Commission on Aging, where she facilitated a strategic planning process to help Denver become an age-friendly community and initiated the Commission’s social media presence. In 2018, she earned the Mayor’s Diversity and Inclusion award. Janine currently chairs the Encore Network Leadership Council and has been selected as a 2020-2021 Encore Public Voices Fellow.

Her favorite saying is that of civil rights activist Grace Lee Boggs: “We are the leaders we’ve been looking for.”