Janet Kamin ’98

Pro Bono Consulting Projects

Janet Kamin and her team of consultants know well what it is like to have progress on your latest business project documented on the Internet. Kamin, an associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, served as job manager on a pro bono project for the Special Olympics that was featured on the firm’s Web site.

Special Olympics CEO Tim Shriver had contacted the firm for help in reaching his goal of doubling the number of athlete participants worldwide by 2005. The challenge was to develop processes, organizational structures and resources to support the Special Olympics throughout its some 200 U.S. and non-U.S. locations. Transforming the IT strategy was a way to truly globalize the effort.

The Special Olympics project was one of a variety of projects that Kamin, who joined the firm after receiving her MBA, has completed. She has consulted for such clients as a large government agency, a national retail bank and a health care company.

Kamin already had a great deal of experience in health care, as she holds a PhD in clinical psychology. Before coming to the School, she was a practicing clinical psychologist, codirector of a clinic and an adjunct professor at Adelphi University. “The psychology industry changed with the introduction of managed care,” she says of her dramatic career change. “That brought my attention to the business world.”

Kamin says that there is no difference at the firm in the level of quality between revenue-producing or pro bono projects. In the case of the Special Olympics, the firm even had a larger team than usual, because the client wasn’t price sensitive.

In the end, the team of consultants and Special Olympics staff agreed that each organization was able to bring to the table its own characteristic strengths — the efficiency of the for-profit and the passion of the nonprofit.