Author Description

Jan was born in Midland, Texas, graduated with honors in Montana, and earned her bachelors degree in Education from Oklahoma Baptist University. She also earned her masters degree in Education from Oral Roberts University and taught in public and private schools in Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas from 1964 - 1999, including regular mainstream classrooms, gifted students, the Texas bilingual educational system, English as a Second Language, in addition to tutoring and home-schooling her own children in Mexico. Jan draws invaluable insight from her life experiences of raising six children and traveling in the U.S. and abroad, including five years of mission work in some of the remote areas of the country of Mexico. One of the most challenging experiences of her life was burying her three month old baby, Paul, on a mountainside in Mexico while doing mission work in that country. She again experienced unbearable heartache when she lost her oldest son, Mark, in 1985. Jan was a talk show host for a weekly, Christian television broadcast while teaching public school and working on her master's degree at the University of Texas. She has served on many executive boards including a police foundation, a US Senate campaign, and various other organizations. Jan has written two books; one is a reflection of the heartache of losing a child and one is a collection of her first poetry. She has also been published in Best Poems and Poets of 2002. She has edited numerous books for other writers. Jan is an accomplished pianist, has served as pianist for several churches, and has invested many years in the field of music education. Jan and her husband Jim own businesses in Billings, Montana. They have six children and ten grandchildren and make their home in the beautiful state of Montana.