Who is Jane Sanders?
Jane Sanders (full name: Mary Jane O’Meara Sanders) is an American social worker, college administrator, and political staffer born in New York City, New York, U.S. She is the wife of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders to whom she has been married since 1988.
From 1996 to 1997, she was provost and interim president of Goddard College. Sanders also served as president of Burlington College from 2004 to 2011. She is also the founder of the think tank The Sanders Institute which she founded in June 2017.
Sanders became a member of the Advisory Panel of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 in 2018.
How Old is Jane Sanders?
Jane is 70 years old as of 2019. She was born Mary Jane O’Meara on January 3, 1950, in New York City, New York, U.S.
Jane Sanders Family
Jane was born as one of five children to Bernadette Joan (Sheridan) and Benedict P. O’Meara. She grew up in Brooklyn. Sanders holds an Irish descent and she was all through raised Catholic
Jane Sanders Education
Jane attended Catholic schools. she attended Saint Saviour High School, and later attending the University of Tennessee. However, she dropped out of school and she moved back to Brooklyn with her first husband, David Driscoll.
Sanders later finished her college degree at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont, earning a bachelor’s in social work. Jane later
earned a doctorate in leadership studies in politics and education from Union Institute & University headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1996.
Jane Sanders Husband
Jane has been married to American politician Bernie Sanders in 1988. The two met in 1981, ten days before his first campaign victory as Mayor of Burlington. They then met at Bernie’s victory party. Sanders and O’Meara got married on May 28, 1988. The day before their wedding day, the two visited the Soviet Union as part of an official delegation in his capacity as mayor.
The couple owns a row house in Capitol Hill, a house in Burlington’s New North End neighborhood, and a lakefront summer home in North Hero. Bernie 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 went ahead serving in Sanders’s Congressional office as Chief of Staff and as Policy and Press Adviser. She also serves as an Alternate Commissioner for the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission.
Jane was previously married to David Driscoll. The couple initially lived in Brooklyn. The two later moved together to Vermont when Driscoll’s employer, IBM, transferred him in 1975. However, the two divorced shortly after their arrival in Vermont and the birth of their son Dave. She has three children with Driscoll.
Jane Sanders Kids
Jane has three children from her first marriage to David Driscoll, (Heather Titus, Carina Driscoll, and David Driscoll. She is also a stepmother to Levi Sanders (born: 1969), Bernie’s son from his relationship with Susan Campbell Mott. She has seven grandchildren,
three (including one who was adopted) through her step-son Levi and four through her real children.
Jane Sanders Social Worker
Initially in her career, Sanders worked in the Juvenile Division of the Burlington Police Department. She later worked as a community organizer with the King Street Area Youth Center, and as a volunteer for AmeriCorps VISTA.
She served the founding Director of the Mayor’s Youth Office and Department Head in the City of Burlington from 1981 to 1991. Sanders was also active in K-12 education, elected as a School Board Commissioner. She was a founding member of the Women’s Council & the Film Commission.
Her husband was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1991 and from then to 1995, Jane worked in his office on a volunteer basis.
Jane Sanders Goddard College
She was appointed as Provost and Interim President of her alma mater, Goddard College in 1996. This is to help the college through a difficult period. The Board, faculty, staff, students, and Sanders also worked together to improve the accreditation, finances, and governance of the institution
Jane Sanders Burlington College
She served as President of Burlington College from 2004 through 2011. This was a small liberal arts college founded in 1972 for non-traditional students. In 2016, the institution closed due to financial problems.
Jane Sanders Net Worth
Through her work as a social worker, Jane has earned herself some wealth to her name. However, her net worth is not yet disclosed to the public.