Meet the Moms! Spotlight on Jean Neibauer

Jean Neibauer, Anna's mom, was born and raised in the Iowa cornfields in the late 1940's. The eldest of 5 children, Jean was a shy girl who enjoyed reading and playing with her cat. She majored in Spanish at Detroit Mercy College (where she regularly played tricks on the unsuspecting nuns). In the late '60's, Jean spent time living in Mexico, where she worked at an orphanage and took 200 girls under her care (she makes a mean Mexican breakfast!). She acquired her M.A. in teaching English as a second language, a degree which took her around the country and the globe, teaching in Michigan, Florida, Texas, and Iran. In 1978, Jean moved to Waterloo, Iowa to raise Anna in a bustling, colorful townhouse apartment complex in which Jean's sister, Liz, also lived.

For nearly 25 years, Jean has worked as an academic advisor at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa (adjacent to Waterloo). She counsels students on their majors and career choices, empowering the students to follow their passions by pursuing nontraditional paths, studying abroad, and generally breaking free from hovering parents - Go Jean!

Jean enjoys reading (especially fiction, politics, and fantasy), movies (she's a hopeless romantic, and is particularly enthusiastic about the Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and Star Trek series), travel, meditation, all things food-related (and is a wealth of information on nutrition and health), and she's a self-proclaimed news junkie. Unable to sit still, Jean is proud to have walked a marathon in 2005. In the last few years, Jean has taken up slightly less physically-demanding activities like pottery.

Jean loves NYC and is extremely excited for our weekend together!

More mom bios to come.........