LOS ANGELES, CA, January 19, 2025 /24-7PressRelease/ — Janis Black Warner is a distinguished biographee of Marquis Who’s Who. She was recently spotlighted in New York City’s Times Square on a 22-story screen that is passed by an estimated 1.5 million people daily. As in all Marquis Who’s Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are chosen from among a pool of the most prominent professionals and are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
As a result of her passion and desire to help others daily, Ms. Warner is a lifelong philanthropist and advocate for mental health. She is well-regarded for her expert leadership in the field, and she has held high-level positions at numerous charitable organizations, including as a foundation board member of Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and a board member of the Beverly Hills Police Foundation. Through her work with the Beverly Hills Police Foundation, she sponsored a mental health dog, “Nami,” who lives at the police department. Among her other roles, Ms. Warner has served as an advisory council member of NAMI West Side LA and Friends for Life, where she began volunteering at age 18 and eventually rose to become president. During her presidency, Friends for Life raised more than $450,000 for a pediatric intensive care unit at Cedars-Sinai. She was a board member of Los Angeles ORT Technical School, a board member of Vista Del Mar, where she volunteered for more than 40 years, and the first female president of the President’s Club. Ms. Warner also serves on the PFAC Advisory Council at UCLA Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital. Her expertise was applauded in helping to build a state-of-the-art, stand-alone, psych hospital in Los Angeles, which was completed within three years. The main building of Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles is named after Ms. Warner’s parents, Joyce and Stanley Black, and she hopes to continue their legacy through her work. Her philanthropy helped build a meditation garden for the hospital, and she also implemented fundraisers for cameras in the NICU to enable parents to watch their children from home. She also helped raise funds to hire a therapist for doctors, nurses and family members going through trauma.
Among countless other examples of advocacy in the area of mental health, Ms. Warner is perhaps best known as the namesake for the Janis Black Warner Speaker Series, a monthly program that features talks and presentations by mental health professionals hosted by NAMI West Side LA. She is proudly celebrating the 10th year of the series, which highlights her goal to reduce stigma. Ms. Warner’s father and grandfather were noted publishers of books of inspiration since 1948, and Ms. Warner follows in their footsteps, having written two of her own “Janis Black Books of Inspiration,” which are collections of uplifting and spiritually resonant quotes. Since their initial publication, she has handed out over 3,000 copies to anyone whom she felt was in need of inspiration, including such well-known names as Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Justin Bieber, Seal, Rod Stewart, Colin Powell, and Elton John.
Outside of her philanthropic endeavors, Ms. Warner has also led a successful career in retail and interior design. After working in business affairs at HBO from the early-to-mid 1980s, she went into business, establishing California Feather and Down. Boasting 450 employees and supplying over 85 stores at its height, the company grew to become the fourth-largest down pillow manufacturer in the United States. In this capacity, Ms. Warner created her own juvenile product line, featuring body pillows for pregnant women, first-down infant comforters and baby booster nursing pillows. These products were featured nationwide in numerous juvenile product magazines. Selling 2,000 body pillows monthly, Ms. Warner ultimately became the number one exhibitor for such products at the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association in Dallas, Texas. Following her work with California Feather and Down, Ms. Warner established PillowTalk Studio, which was located on Robertson Boulevard in Beverly Hills. She was also featured on the cover of the Los Angeles Times in the West Side Home section.
Looking toward the future, Ms. Warner aspires to finish work on her third “Book of Inspirations” – she is also passionate about writing a book on the subject of mental health itself, with the provisional title of “Pain to Purpose: A Journey to Mental Health Wellness – Getting Rid of Stigma by Telling Our Stories.” Ms. Warner recently celebrated her 20th wedding anniversary with her husband, Douglas Warner, and together they share four children and two granddaughters. “We work well together, sharing our lives and working toward our combined endeavors,” says Ms. Warner.
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