Jane Shaw

Before joining PERC, Jane S. Shaw (who also writes under the name Jane Shaw Stroup) was a journalist who had developed an uneasy feeling that much of the commentary about environmental policy that she read—and even some that she wrote—was tilted in the wrong direction. The usual solution to an environmental problem was to turn it over to the government. She had become uncomfortable with this policy.

In 1983, while an editor at Business Week Jane attended PERC’s National Conference for Journalists in Montana. There she discovered a group of people who had thought carefully about environmental issues and concluded that the role of government was overrated and the value of the private sector too often ignored. A year later, she joined PERC (and in 1985 she married one of PERC’s founders, Richard L. Stroup). Today, Jane is a principled advocate of market approaches.

After directing PERC’s editorial outreach program for many years, Jane joined the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 2006. (It was then called the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy.) She became its president in 2008. In 2015, she retired and is now chairperson of the center’s board of directors. She also edits two blogs, libertyandecology.org, and janetakesonhistory.org.

Jane has written and edited hundreds of articles about environmental, economic, and educational topics. Her writings have appeared in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times, and USA Today, as well as more academic outlets such as Public Choice and the Cato Journal. 

Shaw is co-author with Michael Sanera of Facts, Not Fear: A Parents’ Guide to Teaching Children About the Environment (Regnery Publishing, Inc.). She helped develop PERC’s environmental education program, which provided more balanced curriculum materials. Jane also edited with Ronald D. Utt, A Guide to Smart Growth (Heritage and PERC).

Before joining PERC, Jane was an associate economics editor of Business Week. From 1977 to 1981, she was a Washington correspondent for McGraw-Hill Publications, where she wrote for Business Week and other McGraw-Hill magazines and newsletters; before that, she was a correspondent for McGraw-Hill in Chicago. She received her B.A. degree from Wellesley College. She will soon receive a master’s degree in history from North Carolina State University. 

Jane is a past president of the Association of Private Enterprise Education (APEE).  She is the editorial advisor for Econ Journal Watch, a member of the Editorial Advisory Panel of Regulation, a senior editor of Liberty, and a member of the Editorial Advisory Council of the Institute of Economic Affairs (London). She lives in Raleigh with her husband, Richard Stroup.