Meet Janessa Dennis: HBI’s Summer Intern

Meet Janessa Dennis: HBI’s Summer Intern

Historic Boston is pleased to welcome summer intern, Janessa Dennis, to the team!  

Janessa, a native of Clearwater Florida, will enter her final year of study toward a Master of Arts degree in Historic Preservation at Boston University this fall. Professionally, she most recently served as the Director of Communications and Public Awareness for the City of Boston in Mayor Wu’s administration from 2022 to January 2024. 

Pioneering over a decade of Strategic Communications, Community Engagement, and Project Management across diverse industries and organizational settings, Janessa’s talent for communications and passion for preservation speaks for itself. She began her professional journey in 2015 with the religious non-profit Great Expectations Ministries as Community Programming Manager to further member volunteerism through her numerous community outreach campaigns. She graduated from Clark Atlanta University with a BA in Religion and Public History in 2022, completing a Certificate in Tourism and Hospitality in 2020 in conjunction with her studies. 

In this time, Janessa also participated in panel discussions on historic preservation such as “Preserving Clark Atlanta University: Addressing the dire need for student housing” in 2018. Additionally, she has also given lectures on related topics, such as “Urban Design Elements and Preservation of East Boston” in her time at BU. Janessa has developed expertise in historic preservation in her time working as a Research Associate for Preserving Black Atlanta Inc. and for her service on the Board of Clearwater Neighborhood Housing Services where she dually served as a Preservation Consultant in addition to her role as a board member from 2020-2022. 

Janessa’s work with us over the summer will consist of conducting a communications audit and establishing an HBI branding guide, in addition to creating a booklet on HBI’s portfolio of projects. Janessa’s commitment to advancing social justice through historic preservation is clear and we are thrilled she will be lending her valuable insight to HBI for the summer; we look forward to working with her.

Welcome to the HBI team, Janessa!