Our Namesake

Mohinder “Mona” Jain, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. William Menninger observes six essential qualities key to success: sincerity, personal integrity, humility, courtesy, wisdom and charity. These describe the character of Dr. Mona Jain.

Recently retired as director of Family Health Services for Manatee County Head Start, this Fulbright and National Science Foundation scholar and medical doctor has been a teacher and administrator in American, British and Indian systems of education since 1961. She has taught biological science, health science and physical science at the K-12, master’s and education specialist’s levels. Dr. Jain believes in education for all students, especially continuing education for non-traditional mature students. She has helped mature women and men return to school for the last four decades at Bethune-Cookman College and other institutions of higher learning.

Jain’s involvement with her community goes beyond her career endeavors. She has served on the Governor’s Commission on Education, and the executive board of the Florida Commission on the Status of Women, and chaired the Manatee Commission on the Status of Women. She also served as a director of the United Nations Association and UNIFEM, president of the American Association of University Women, director of the Girls Club, Manatee Commission on Human Relations, director of the Sarasota County Aging Network, and worked with the United Negro College Fund of Bradenton/Sarasota. Her professional affiliations include the American Public Health Association, the Florida Public Health ad Health Education Associations, the American Medical Women’s Association, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the National Science Teachers Association, the American Association of Biology Teachers and the Indian Association of Biology Teachers.

Her work has not gone unnoticed. Jain was one of only 20 women in the nation to be honored with a community service award from the American Medical Women’s Association. She also has been honored with a life membership in Delta Kappa Gamma and Phi Delta Kappa, received the 1998 University of South Florida at Sarasota-Manatee Alumni Professional Achievement Award and the 2001 USF National Distinguished Alumnus Award. She is also a founding member of the Women’s Resource Center of Manatee and the Manatee Commission on the Status of Women. Recognition to Jain’s dedication is not limited to the United States. During a visit to her home country in India, Jain was granted a private audience with international humanitarian Mother Teresa.

In addition to a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Education and Educational Leadership from the University of South Florida in 1984, Jain earned a M.D. from the Spartan Health Sciences University School of Medicine, an Ed.S. in Administration and Supervision from NOVA University, and M.S. in Science Education from Florida State University, a B.Ed. in Biological Science and Health Sciences from Delhi University, and a B.Sc. in Biology, Chemistry and History of Sciences from Delhi University.

Manatee and Sarasota Counties have been home to the Jain family for the last 40 years. Mona’s husband Kailash is owner of a fine jewelry business in Sarasota and her daughter is a physician and child advocate in Manatee County.