Jane is a social ecologist with a lifelong interest in combining arts and conservation to connect people with each other and the natural world. In the early 90’s whilst establishing The Inner City Forest on three hectares of degraded land in Central Auckland she learned that growing a forest is about growing a community. That experience has shaped her contributions in the world ever since.

Living in the UK for 25 years, she co-founded environmental education charity Global Generation. Along with community gardening, participatory building and green social prescribing this was a catalyst for her action research based doctoral study into collaborative leadership within community initiatives. Jane was an adjunct lecturer at Middlesex University and co-ran the first MSc cohort in Transdisciplinary Practice.

In 2022 she returned to her home ground in the South Wairarapa where she and her husband Rod have created an environmental education and native plant restoration programme for local schools through the charity Ruamāhanga Farm Foundation which they co-founded with Jane’s two sisters.  Jane is increasingly involved in local issues around the Ruamāhanga awa including setting up the Waihinga Catchment Group and being a trustee of the Aorangi Restoration Trust.