Janet St. Clair Lazar has been a social worker for nearly 20 years, primarily working in mental health services for children and families. Currently, she is Program Director for FamiliesFirst, a private foster family agency serving children and families in San Mateo and Santa Clara County. In addition to her professional work, Janet and her husband have been foster parents for many years and currently provide vacation and respite foster care to full-time foster parents in San Mateo County.

In 2002-2003, she and her husband took their three birth children and moved to Brazil where they served as volunteers with a large Brazilian child welfare agency in Curitiba, Brazil. After six weeks of intensive language training, they enrolled their children in Brazilian schools, rolled up their sleeves and went to work. Janet provided clinical consultation and support to the Brazilian social work staff as well as helping implement a training program for foster parents. She and her husband also helped launch an independent living program for adolescents that had “grown up” in the foster care system to equip them for fully functioning, independent adult lives. Janet graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in psychology and a Masters in Social Welfare.