Jane Vogel Mantiri, Ph.D. ’75

2025 Distinguished Alumni Award for Community Service

Driven by an unwavering passion for justice, Jane Vogel Mantiri, Ph.D. ‘75 has dedicated her life to fighting for equity. Vogel Mantiri was born in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1953 during the Indonesian Revolution that followed World War II. Her family fled Indonesia shortly after her birth and waited in the Netherlands until West Granville Presbyterian Church in Milwaukee, WI, brought them to the US as part of a mission project in 1960. Reverend Edgar G. Bletcher ’43, a Carroll University alumnus, who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and was active in the refugee resettlement program, believed strongly that actions, not words, defined Christianity and religion. Vogel Mantiri regarded Reverend Bletcher as a second father and mentor. He is the reason she attended Carroll University, and he was her role model for activism, courage and love.

Vogel Mantiri completed her studies in just three years and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Carroll University in 1975, earning majors in education and geography with a minor in physical education. A proud member of the women’s track and field team at a time when women were pioneering collegiate athletics, Vogel Mantiri's experience under the dedicated, competent and empathic leadership of coach Verallyn Cline left a lasting impression. This formative experience strengthened her lifelong commitment to championing gender justice.

Vogel Mantiri has long been a strong advocate for equity, beginning with her efforts as an assistant track coach at Waukesha South High School, where she fought for equal pay for female coaches. Her advocacy led to Wisconsin’s State Labor and Industry Commission ordering the Waukesha School District to pay the difference. Later, in Oregon, she developed one of the state's first sex abuse counseling curricula for schools.

Having grown up in the shadow of two wars, Vogel Mantiri was compelled to pursue a career in trauma psychology, specializing in both child and adult psychotherapy. She served in the US Military as an Army psychologist and worked in private practice in Eugene, OR, until her retirement in 2017. While working with children, she frequently provided testimony in court to protect abused children. Additionally, she assisted many of her adult patients in the military and in private practice in managing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other mental health challenges.

In addition, she devoted 15 years to the Center for Community Counseling, a grassroots organization providing mental health services to under-resourced individuals, particularly women striving to balance school and work on minimum-wage salaries, as a volunteer and an officer on the Board of Directors.

In 2014, Vogel Mantiri realized her childhood dream of becoming an actor, relocating to Portland, OR. She performed in theatre and on screen, most notably as Fred’s Mom in Portlandia. The lack of equity in the theatre industry was more than Vogel Mantiri could abide or ignore. More than 85% of the plays in American theatre were written, directed, produced and cast by white men. She founded a social justice arts nonprofit, Advance Gender Equity in the Arts (AGE), to amplify and empower the voices of marginalized artists based on gender, race and age. Under her leadership, AGE’s mission and impact made a significant difference in changing the equity landscape of theatre locally and nationally.

Vogel Mantiri recently published her memoir, See JANE Run, a Primer on Love, Resilience, and the American Indo Dream. Vogel Mantiri is also currently writing a one-act play based on her life, with hopes of touring Indonesia, the Netherlands, and Milwaukee, retracing the route of her family’s immigrant odyssey. In addition, a documentary of her life, See Jane Run: An Indo Story, is in post-production. Vogel Mantiri is currently on the Board of Directors for The Indo Project, an international nonprofit created to preserve, promote, and celebrate her beloved Indo heritage, which is vanishing because of its colonial history.

See all the 2025 award recipients