Following her strong interest in art history (particularly early medieval manuscripts and contemporary photography), Janis gained experience within a variety of art institutions and heritage sites in New York (Solomon R Guggenheim Museum), Pittsburgh (The Concept Art Gallery and Mattress Factory Museum), and Scotland (Museum of St Andrews, the Old Steeple of Dundee). During her experience navigating the art world (and writing about it as the editor-in-chief for the History of Art at St Andrews Magazine (HASTA)), Janis witnessed how elite spaces can simultaneously empower and alienate the fringes of society, which ultimately sparked her interest in accessible, equitable, and democratised community spaces in the face of austerity, poverty, and neoliberal alienation.

Janis received her joint honours art history and management undergraduate degree from the University of St Andrews and stayed to receive her PhD in the Centre for the Study of Philanthropy and Public Good (CSPPG). Her dissertation explored how the practice of relational philanthropy reimagines grant programs through trust-based practices through the lens of French Pragmatic Sociology of Critique. She remains in CSPPG as a research fellow, funded by the Rank Foundation, to explore relational philanthropy, to bring more robust theory to the field of philanthropy, and to marry research and practice through public policy and engagement.