Jane Fraser (born 1942) is an American philanthropist, author, editor, businesswoman, and the President of The Stuttering Foundation of America, a non-profit charitable organization working toward the prevention and improved treatment of

stuttering Stuttering, also known as stammering, is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases as well as involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the ...

Early life

Fraser was born in Memphis,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, in 1942. Her father, Malcolm Fraser, was one of the founders of

Genuine Parts Company Genuine Parts Company (GPC) is an American service organization engaged in the distribution of automotive replacement parts, industrial replacement parts, office products and electrical/electronic materials. GPC serves numerous customers from mor ...

and later founded the Stuttering Foundation of America after living with

his entire life. In 1964, Fraser received her bachelor's degree in Russian and linguistics from

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...

in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Fraser later attended the

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the ea ...

in France receiving her M.S. in Russian in 1966. She worked as an interpreter and translator for the

National Assembly of France The National Assembly (french: link=no, italics=set, Assemblée nationale; ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known a ...

in Paris, France, as well as served as editor and translator for the

Institut Gustave Roussy Gustave Roussy is the first leader cancer-research hospital in Europe and ranked among the top 3 best specialized hospitals in the world . It is a centre for high quality patient care, research and teaching. It is highly-known for the treatment of ...

until 1980.

President of the Stuttering Foundation of America

Beginning in 1981, Fraser has served as President of the Stuttering Foundation of America. Since the beginning of her presidency, the foundation's endowment has grown from $3,000,000 to $17,000,000. The Stuttering Foundation has also added a toll-free hotline and website. Under Fraser's presidency, the foundation has published 24 books and 13 brochures for stutterers.

Author and editor

Fraser co-authored “If Your Child Stutters: A Guide for Parents” for the Stuttering Foundation in 1988. She also edited “Counseling Stutterers” in 1981 and “Stuttering Therapy: Transfer and Maintenance” in 1982.

Other affiliations

Fraser served as Member of the Advisory Council for the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communicative Disorders, at the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

from 1996 until 2000. She also was a member of the board of trustees for Hamilton College from 1991 until 1997. She is a member of the board of trustees for the

Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization is an educational institute in Clinton, New York founded in 2007. Judge David Aldrich Nelson was a charter director. One of its board members is Jane Fraser. History History pr ...

. In addition, she serves as a member of the advisory board for the Institute for Effective Governance in Washington D.C. and a member of the Conservation Council at Panthera Corporation.

Awards and honors

Fraser was named Executive of the Year by the Non-Profit Times for 2008–2009. Fraser is an Honorary Fellow of the

Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (abbreviated as RCSLT) is the professional body for speech and language therapists in the UK and a registered charity. It was established on 6 January 1945 to promote the study of speech therapy ...

Corporation

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fraser, Jane American philanthropists American non-fiction writers Stuttering Foundation Presidents American women in business American nonprofit executives 1942 births Living people Women nonprofit executives American women non-fiction writers 21st-century American women