Jane West is an independent education policy consultant based in Washington D.C. She began her policy work as an intern in the U.S. Senate for Senator Lowell P. Weicker (R-CT) in 1983, where she went on to serve as staff director for the Subcommittee on Disability Policy of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). She has been active in policy making for over forty years working for a range of federal government agencies as well as national organizations, including the Presidential Task Force on the HIV Epidemic, the National Council on Disability, the Social Security Administration, the U.S. Department of Education, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, The National Network of State Teachers of the Year, the Higher Education Consortium for Special Education, and the Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children. She has written and spoken extensively on policy and advocacy in education and disability and served on the faculties of the University of San Francisco, the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, and Virginia Commonwealth University designing and teaching public policy courses. For more information see: https://www.janewestconsulting.com/