Jeanne Heise graduated from Smith College with an AB in American Studies and from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, with an MBA. Her career began working in educational publishing and, post-MBA, moved on to high-tech marketing for a variety of major Silicon Valley companies.
Jeanne has been a lifelong art lover and arts advocate. Her first museum experience was visiting the mummies exhibit at the Field Museum in Chicago, which created a lifelong fascination with museums. While her children were in elementary school, Jeanne served as an instructor and school coordinator for Art in Action, a program offering a high-quality visual arts curriculum for grades K through 8 (at the time in CA schools). Later she served for 8 years on Art in Action’s Board of Directors and for two years as Development Chair. In 2014, she joined the docent group at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford, where she focuses on general museum tours, school tours, and special exhibitions. She served as Chair of the Cantor docents in 2020-21. In 2017, she joined the docent organization at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (de Young and Legion of Honor), where again she focuses on general public tours, school tours, access tours (for sight impaired, dementia, and cognitive impairment audiences), as well as special exhibitions. She currently serves as San Mateo Arts Commissioner for District 4 (second term). Her areas of focus on the commission are Arts in Corrections, Grants, and Murals and Public Art. Her overriding interest is in making art representative of and accessible to all.
