Jan was Director of the Reggio Emilia Information Exchange in Australia, and Associate of the Education Faculty at Monash University. She has many years of experience teaching in early childhood settings in Australia, England and Canada. Jan first became aware of the educational project for young children in the City of Reggio Emilia when attending an Early Childhood conference in the USA in 1988. She subsequently joined the first American delegation to visit Reggio Emilia in 1989 and later visited the exhibition in the USA, Germany, France and Canada, to increase her understanding of the priciples underlying the work of the Reggio Emilia schools, and to dialogue with other people about their interpretations. In 1992, Jan first spoke about this project at an ECA conference in Adelaide, and organised and led the first Australian delegation to Reggio Emilia in the same year. She has now visited the schools of Reggio Emilia on many more occasions and organised and led numerous Australian delegations.