When people walk through the front door of the American Botanical Council, they are immediately greeted by a smiling, friendly face—that of our receptionist, Janie Carter. Or, when people call ABC during normal business hours, it’s usually Janie’s pleasant voice that they first hear.

When a scheduled visitor enters ABC, Janie usually has an “ABC Welcomes…” sign made to help ensure that the visitor feels special and knows that we’re expecting them. On their departure, the visitors receive from Janie the sign, rolled up into a ribbon-bound “gift,” complete with a packet of information about ABC, the latest issue of HerbalGram, and more.

Janie has the perfect personality to perform the role of welcoming people to ABC. She’s genuinely friendly, and her love of people shows in the many ways she performs her numerous roles at ABC. Janie has also taken on a myriad of tasks and responsibilities that are essential to the smooth operation of the organization.

These tasks include answering and directing phone calls; opening and distributing all incoming “snail mail”; checking all e-mails received by the general ABC e-mail account and forwarding such inquiries to the appropriate staff member; responding to requests for ABC’s educational catalog; keeping track of employee comings and goings and occasional absences; responding to ABC member inquiries; assisting the accounting department with administrative tasks; adding conference information to ABC’s extensive online events calendar; updating the contact database with address changes; updating ABC’s member and donor relations information; photocopying table of contents pages of incoming magazines and journals so I can determine which articles might be suitable for summarization in HerbClip; and then scanning selected articles into PDFs. She also has the hopefully more fun task of scanning health-related cartoons for my speeches.

Janie is part of the “glue” that keeps ABC working smoothly. The mother of two small children, Janie’s nurturing and caring attitude pervades all that she does at ABC. She has become part of the hub of communications for the organization, and she performs her job with excellence and a sense of love and commitment. Janie truly loves life and her job—and this positive attitude is evident to all of us here at ABC as well as those who call or visit us in person.

—Mark Blumenthal