Jane Sanders

About

Mary Jane Sanders (née O’Meara, formerly Driscoll; born January 3, 1950) is an American social worker, college administrator, activist, and political strategist. She was provost and interim president of Goddard College from 1996 to 1997 and president of Burlington College from 2004 to 2011. In 2017, Sanders founded the think tank The Sanders Institute. She has been married to U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders since 1988. She has also served as first lady of Burlington, Vermont during her second husband’s term as mayor.

Sanders was born Mary Jane O’Meara on January 3, 1950, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York City, as one of the five children of Bernadette Joan (Sheridan) and Benedict P. O’Meara. She is of Irish descent and was raised Catholic. O’Meara continues to observe Catholicism as of 2020. She attended Catholic schools, including Saint Saviour High School, before attending the University of Tennessee. O’Meara dropped out of school and moved back to Brooklyn with her first husband, David Driscoll. In 1975, they moved to Vermont when Driscoll’s employer, IBM, transferred him. The couple divorced in 1980. She has three children: Heather Titus…