Carey Sipp 1/10/261:00 AM
(Note: This brief obituary was lovingly crafted with the support of Cherie Porter, Jane Ellen Stevens’ closest long-term friend; Dana Brown, one of the first employees of what became PACEs Connection; and Lori Dorfman, DrPH, MPH, director of the Berkey Media Studies Group, Jane’s friend with whom she taught and worked.)
Jane Ellen Stevens, beloved friend, award winning science journalist, and founder and publisher of ACEsTooHigh.com and PACEsConnection.com, died gratefully at her home in Northern California on Sunday, November 30th, in the company of her four cats and friend of 45 years, Cherie Porter.
Jane lived an active engaged life for seven years after her initial diagnosis of glioblastoma in 2018, followed by surgery, chemo, and radiation. In February of this year a second tumor foretold the inevitable, ultimately leading Jane to choose a “self-administered assisted death”, an end of life option in California.
Friends and colleagues were informed within the hour through the following message from Cherie:
The vivacious, wholly unique, and luminous star we have known as Jane, was extinguished at 12:00 p.m. on this day. She felt your love deeply, reflected love back, and was completely at peace.
Jane was born August 23, 1948 in New Jersey. Her career as a science journalist spanned nearly five decades and touched millions of lives world-wide through articles and stories in newspapers, magazines, videos and podcasts. Among others, she wrote for the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Examiner, the magazines Science, Nature, National Geographic, Technology Review, and the Los Angeles Times Magazine. She pioneered video journalism for New York Times TV and founded a health/science/technology feature service with more than 20 client news organizations worldwide.
As a multimedia journalist, Jane reported for Discovery Channel. At UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, she helped found the multimedia reporting track, did groundbreaking work reporting on the prevalence and impact of domestic violence, and taught master classes for journalists on the importance of including in stories how exposure to trauma affects the epidemiology of violence.
Struck by the significance of findings in the 1998 Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study published by Kaiser Permanente and the Centers for Disease Control, Jane started writing about the study in 2005, with a post in the Sacramento Bee, “Targeting obesity at its roots: Childhood trauma may be at the core of the epidemic of overweight adults”. (As Jane was not a staff journalist at the Sacramento Bee, that post is not available in the publication’s online library.)
In 2009, Jane founded ACEsTooHigh.com, a news site for journalists and the general public. On this site she ultimately reposted the 2005 story which featured Dr. Vincent Felitti, co-principal author of the 1998 ACE Study, under the headline, “The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study — the largest, most important public health study you never heard of — began in an obesity clinic.” This article was among many of Jane’s ACEs Connection and then PACEs Connection posts that “went viral”, was picked up by news services, and generated hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of page views, helping increase awareness of ACEs Science. It also launched a two-decade, mutually respectful friendship between Jane and Dr. Felitti, the beginning of what would become the ACEs Science movement.
In 2012 Jane launched ACEs Connection.com, a social network comprising ACEsTooHigh.com and the ACEs Connection community of practice. ACEs Connection grew it from 200 members to some 60,000 members before Jane stepped down as its CEO in 2023.
Today, the site has more than 62,000 members worldwide, some 400 geographic sub-communities, and more than 40 topic-focused communities. There are 17 international communities represented on the site, with new members joining daily. Jane had launched ACEs Connection in part with an invitation email sent to 200 addresses from Dr. Felitti’s contact list.
Early on, Jane wrote of the work to make information about ACEs science more widely known:
The intent was to inform people, organizations, and communities about a new understanding of human behavior that had been emerging since the 1980s. It was clear that this new knowledge had the potential to solve our most intractable problems. The network was designed to connect the pioneers who were integrating trauma-informed and resilience-building practices based on ACEs science across sectors. This included pediatricians, educators, business owners, judges, community activists, people participating in associations, people working in juvenile justice, social workers, people in the faith-based community, emergency medical technicians.
In 2021 Jane drove the name change from ACEs Connection to PACEs Connection, denoting the significance of both positive and adverse childhood experiences.
Remarkably, even after her diagnosis of glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer, in February of 2018, Jane continued to live life to the fullest. She remained committed to caring for her friendships and her cats, experiencing the gifts of nature, exercising body and mind, and writing.
In October 2018, eight months after recovering from brain surgery, chemo and radiation, Jane hosted the second international ACES Conference, co-hosted by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, then of the Center for Youth Wellness, engaging and connecting hundreds of individuals from around the world. This was the second such international conference, the first being in 2016.
In 2025, following the recurrence of glioblastoma, her second brain surgery, and the prescribed treatments, Jane said she was fortunate and grateful that California was among the 11 states that allow and support self-administered assisted dying, also referred to as medical aid in dying, and death with dignity.
(This practice is strictly regulated by the laws and rules of the state or country in which a person lives, but holds to the concept of the medical right to die; the right of a person to choose when and how they will die, either through medical aid in dying [a physician’s assistance limited to writing a prescription for a lethal dose of drugs], or by refusing life-saving medical treatment.)
We invite you to share your thoughts and remembrances of Jane; how she herself influenced you, or how her efforts to raise awareness of the effects of toxic stress and the protective attributes of positive experiences benefitted your life or the life of those you love.
We plan to post a more detailed obituary in the near future.
Please share your memories by completing the Google form available at this link,Google Form for use in honoring Jane Ellen Stevens, being careful to note it if you want your comments to be posted anonymously.
We have received inquiries from people wanting to remember Jane and organizations she endorsed with a gift in her honor. One journalism nonprofit she worked with and supported is the Institute for Nonprofit News. You can also remember Jane with a tax-deductible gift to support the revitalization of PACEs Connection here.
Co-Directors of PACEs Connection Dana Brown and Carey Sipp are organizing a live on Zoom, Celebration of the Life and Work of Jane Stevens, to occur in mid-January 2026. Watch for this announcement in the next several days.
For more information, please contact:
Dana Brown dana.pacescommunities@gmail.com or
Carey Sipp carey.pacescommunities@gmail.com
Photos of Jane through the years are below. More will be shared in a later, more expanded obituary and on a “memory wall” to be built with the support of those who share photos and memories of Jane using the Google Form for use in honoring Jane Ellen Stevens.
The “Legacy.com” obituary running in The San Francisco Chronicle through December 21, 2025, can be found here, if you would like to comment on it.
For those who would like to read several of Jane’s most memorable posts on PACEs Connection and other news outlets, a curated selection is shared below. If there are others you’d like to see added to the list, please share them in the comments below and we’ll review and add them as time permits.
- The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study — the largest, most important public health study you never heard of — began in an obesity clinic – By Jane Stevens (NOTE FROM CAREY SIPP: Jane’s blog about the ACE Study originally posted on ACEsTooHigh in 2012. As of May, 2026 ACEsTooHigh is unavailable. Efforts are underway to restore the site.)
- Eye Opener – By Jane E. Stevens – likely 2012
- The Zen of learning to love the buzz cut — an example of post-traumatic growth – By Jane Stevens – 11.5.18
- ACEs science can prevent school shootings, but first people have to learn about ACEs science – By Jane Ellen Stevens – 2.21.18
- PACEs Science 101 (FAQs) — Positive and Adverse Childhood Experiences – By Jane Stevens – 10.1.19
- Donald Trump is the product of abuse and neglect. His story is common, even for the powerful and wealthy. – By Jane Stevens – 7.28.20
- We’ve changed our name to PACEs Connection! – By Jane Stevens – 3.16.21
- Think you know something about historical trauma? PACEs Connection’s ‘Historical Trauma in America’ series promises to be an eye-opener – Jane Stevens – 7.6.21
- Mayday at the Bottom of the World – By Jane Stevens – 11.15.22
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Carey Smith Sipp
carey.pacescommunites@gmail.com
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