Janice would devote her career to helping others, serving as the longtime director of research and evaluation at the Yeatman/Union-Sarah Mental Health Centers, where she provided counseling services to patients from a predominantly Black community in North St. Louis. She also ran a private practice in Clayton and later embarked on a second career as a life coach, supporting graduate students in their doctoral studies with an emphasis on dissertation writing.
Alongside this profound orientation toward service, Janice took pride in herself and her trailblazing accomplishments through sartorial self-expression. Her son, Chris Van Buren, and daughter, Brooke Van Buren-Hay — whose childhood memories are steeped in the environment of higher learning on WashU’s campus — vividly remember her penchant for pink.
“The pink ribbon was an expression of her power as a woman,” says Chris. “In a way, it was a sign of protest. She wanted people to see, ‘I did this. I persevered. And this is the culmination of what I’ve done.’”
Education inspiration
“But then there was this period in the evening when mom would say, ‘I’m going to go work on my dissertation. Come check on me at some point.’ And we’d pop into her bedroom, and there she’d be, with all these hot pink note cards and books upon books spread around.” Brooke Van Buren-Hay
At WashU, Janice authored a dissertation on a then-radical topic: “The effects of modeling, coaching, and coding on the assertive behavior of Black college students.” Drawing on her experience helping young adults navigate questions of identity and belonging, she also shared her expertise via the printed page, penning a chapter about raising multiracial children in the book Parenting by Strengths: A Parent’s Guide for Challenging Situations.
Chris was deeply influenced by his mother’s commitment to higher education. He remembers studying in Olin Library, cleaning test tubes in her lab, and later helping her learn statistics. He would go on to study electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton University and lead a successful career as a financial executive specializing in risk management for Fortune 500 companies such as Goldman Sachs, TIAA, and Edward Jones.
Brooke emulated their mother more directly, earning a doctorate in counseling psychology in addition to a juris doctor. She currently works as CEO of Cognitive Consultants LLC, providing psychological and neuropsychological evaluations for patients of all ages. And now Brooke’s son, Miles Hay, is extending his grandmother’s values into the next generation by working alongside his mother as social media and marketing manager at Cognitive Consultants LLC, promoting the importance of mental health services online.
Janice’s WashU academic community inspired many of her family’s achievements. “Our living room often was filled with women of color with PhDs, running various community programs,” Brooke explains. “I had a lot of role models, and that definitely shaped my interest in earning advanced degrees.”
Looking back, Brooke marvels at her mother’s ability to balance parenthood and scholarship.
“I remember always being driven to school, picked up, made dinner, all the normal things,” she says. “But then there was this period in the evening when mom would say, ‘I’m going to go work on my dissertation. Come check on me at some point.’ And we’d pop into her bedroom, and there she’d be, with all these hot pink note cards and books upon books spread around.”
Our mother would be thrilled to know we’re supporting people in this way. She didn’t have these stepping stones herself. Almost everything she did was a first. But now we can aid others — much in the way that she supported her clients. It’s all consistent with her legacy of impact.
Chris Van Buren
A legacy of firsts
“But ultimately it shows perseverance: wanting higher education and taking what you can from it to help your community.” Miles Hay
Now, the Van Buren family is honoring Janice’s legacy with a $50,000 gift to establish the Dr. Janice Jackson Van Buren Endowment for Field Education. Payout from the endowment will help cover the tuition cost of fieldwork education for graduate students studying social work at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. Through matching funds provided by the Wittcoff Accelerator Challenge, established by longtime university benefactor Roma Wittcoff, BSBA ’45, the family’s gift reaches the minimum threshold of $250,000 to establish a new named endowed practicum scholarship.
Like Janice, many recipients are balancing competing life demands alongside their graduate coursework. The opportunity to fully devote themselves to their practicum experiences without incurring additional debt is a priceless gift. “Our mother would be thrilled to know we’re supporting people in this way,” Chris says. “She didn’t have these stepping stones herself. Almost everything she did was a first. But now we can aid others — much in the way that she supported her clients. It’s all consistent with her legacy of impact.”
Indeed, the Van Buren Endowment advances a central priority of With You: The WashU Campaign by expanding access to education. Providing students with experiential learning opportunities empowers them to discover and explore their passions while also freeing them to embark on their careers wholeheartedly, without financial constraints. Additionally, the family’s gift helps sustain the Brown School’s ambitious commitment to fully fund fieldwork education for students in its Master of Social Work program. It is the first U.S. school of social work to provide such comprehensive funding.
Most importantly, however, the gift extends Janice’s influence in perpetuity to future generations of community- and service-oriented civil servants. And it honors her identity as a proud, pink-sporting pioneer of educational and professional achievement. The entire WashU community can draw inspiration from the value she placed on higher education, pursuing her goals in an environment rife with obstacles and persisting through many headwinds to use her education to make a positive impact on society.
Miles captures his grandmother’s impact aptly: “I think her legacy says a lot of things,” he says. “But ultimately it shows perseverance: wanting higher education and taking what you can from it to help your community.”
