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Dr Jane O'Meara Sanders is the fourth President of Burlington College in Burlington, VT, a position she took in 2004. She is also the wife of Vermont US Senator Bernie Sanders, whom she has been with since 1981 and married in 1988.
Sanders is a political scientist, wife, mother, grandmother, and former elected official. She was recruited to serve as Interim President/Provost of her alma-mater, Goddard College, in 1996. As a senior partner in Leadership Strategies, a Burlington based consulting firm, she provided educational and political consulting and worked on federal, state and local political campaigns. Jane served in her husband's Congressional office as Chief of Staff and Policy and Press Advisor.
Sanders has three children in their 30s: Dave Driscoll, the team manager for Burton Snowboards, Carina Driscoll, the communications coordinator at Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility and city councilor, and who, with her husband Blake Ewoldsen, just bought the Community Woodworking Shop in Colchester where they will start a woodworking school. Daughter Heather Driscoll is an artist and photographer and is studying architecture and energy efficient design. All of the children are living in Burlington. Stepson Levi Sanders is a senior legal advocate at Greater Boston Legal Services and is married to Dr Raine Riggs, a neuro psychologist at Brown. Jane says her late ex-husband's daughter Nicole is also considered a daughter by her and Bernie. She also has three grandchildren.
Robert Smith interviewed President Sanders at Burlington College.
VBM: I'd like to start with the history of Burlington College, and what particular niche it serves.
Sanders: Burlington College began 35 years ago in the living room of Steward LaCasce as the Vermont Institute of Community Involvement. It was serving the non-traditional aged student before they became the majority of college students today. They started with a dozen students in his living room. He worked a lot with returned Vietnam War veterans, low income advocates, people who really wanted to further their education and who wanted to really study the issues of the day, but who didn't feel that they wanted to go to class with the 18-year-olds. It wasn't accredited until the 1980s.
One of the people that was part of this is now the CEO of Associates in Rural Development, which...