Jane's step father, Dr. William Fletcher Penn was the first African American to graduate form Yale Medical College. Lastly, Jane's father, Dr. Louis T. Wright, who she took her greatest inspiration from, was among the first black students to earn an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, an the first African American doctor at a public hospital in New York City. During his 30 years working at the Harlem Hospital, he founded and directed the Harlem Hospital Cancer Research Foundation.[5]