1991: Jane Krause Paine

Causes/Issue Area(s): Education, Child Welfare, Self-Esteem

What’s her impact?

As a Junior League of St. Louis leader, Jane Krause Paine was the force behind more than ten award-winning local and national programs improving the lives of children, particularly children at risk. In the early 1960s, she initiated a preschool program staffed by JLSL members at an all-black Y, a first for St. Louis and a model for the Head Start program.

Her interest in parent/child education led to the development of the National Parents as Teachers Program. In the 1980s, as a JLSL Sustainer, she pulled together the League’s Teen Outreach Program (TOP), which became a national model for building self-esteem in at-risk adolescents.

Jane also served as an urban education consultant for the Danforth Foundation in both public and private schools and initiated programs that dealt with teen pregnancy, parent education, family support, and school and community collaboration. She was also the first executive director of the Conference on Education.

Her awards have included the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's Early Childhood and Parent Education Distinguished Service Award, and the first Mary Harriman Community Leadership Award, The Junior League's highest honor.