18 Facts About Jane Sanders

Mary Jane O'Meara Sanders is an American social worker, college administrator, activist, and political strategist.

Jane Sanders was provost and interim president of Goddard College and president of Burlington College.

Jane Sanders has been married to US Senator Bernie Sanders since 1988.

Jane Sanders is of Irish descent and was raised Catholic.

Jane Sanders attended Catholic schools, including Saint Saviour High School, before attending the University of Tennessee.

Jane Sanders has three children from her marriage with Driscoll, who were later adopted by Sanders.

Jane Sanders met Bernie Sanders in 1981, ten days before his first campaign victory as Mayor of Burlington, and again at his victory party; the couple married in 1988.

Early in her career, Jane Sanders worked in the Juvenile Division of the Burlington Police Department, then was a community organizer with the King Street Area Youth Center, and then was a volunteer with AmeriCorps VISTA.

From 1981 to 1991, Jane Sanders served as founding director of the Mayor's Youth Office and Department Head in the City of Burlington.

In 1991, her husband, Bernie Jane Sanders, was elected to US Congress.

In 1996, Jane Sanders was appointed provost and interim president of her alma mater, Goddard College, to help the college through a difficult period.

The board, faculty, staff, students, and Jane Sanders worked together to improve the accreditation, finances, and governance of the institution.

From 2004 through 2011, Jane Sanders was president of Burlington College, a small liberal arts college founded in 1972 for non-traditional students.

Jane Sanders was instrumental in founding the Jane Sanders Institute, a progressive think tank that launched in June 2017, and is one of its 11 original fellows.

Bernie Jane Sanders has described his wife as "one of [his] key advisers", and he has employed her at various times as "an administrative assistant, spokeswoman, policy adviser, chief of staff, and media buyer".

Jane Sanders has served in Sanders's Congressional office as Chief of Staff and as Policy and Press Adviser, and serves as an Alternate Commissioner for the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission.

In 2004, Jane Sanders was named President of Burlington College, a private, non-profit liberal arts school founded in 1972 in Vermont.

In 2010, Jane Sanders oversaw the purchase of property formerly owned and occupied by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington.