Jane Savary

Jane Savary grew up in Santa Barbara, CA before it was dubbed the American Riviera. Her awakening as an environmentalist and corporate skeptic began at age 12 with the blowout of a Union Oil offshore drilling rig, causing the 1969 oil spill in the Santa Barbara Channel. Jane received a B.S. degree in Conservation of Natural Resources from U.C. Berkeley at a time when there were few jobs in the environmental field. Thankfully she had her ninth grade typing skills to fall back on. Jane continued to view the world from an environmentalist’s perspective while working as a bookkeeper to support her small family. Spending time with her husband and son and being in the natural world were her priorities, her career an afterthought. In 2006 Jane was an average working Jill living paycheck to paycheck. She and her family dreamed of escaping the grind of Southern California life, selling their inherited home in the inflated housing market, and moving to Hawaii. On the verge of fulfilling that dream, Jane was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. In overwhelm, the family still hoped to start a new life, but the long-term effects of chemotherapy sent Jane to recover on her couch in front of the television for two years. From that perspective she observed the 2008 election and financial meltdown, recovering just in time for the Great Recession and a miserable job market. Seeing the parade of self-proclaimed experts on the tube gave her the confidence to decide she too could become an expert and write a book. Despite physical, emotional, and financial upheaval, Jane and her family did move to Hawaii, and ultimately found a much happier, healthier life there. She has recounted their five year odyssey in her book “Chasing Aloha, A Skeptic’s Hopeful Journey Surviving Cancer and the Great Recession”.

Website: http://janesavary.com