​Originally called Conversations On the Green, the program started in a Washington, CT, church hall as a local speakers’ series, a grassroots effort to raise money for charities in the area’s pine-crowned hills. It caught the attention of Connecticut Public Television, which began broadcasting the group’s events. The program then went national and over the years evolved into a long-form interview series with a mission to have the country’s most prominent voices debate the country’s most critical issues in an effort to revive the democratic principle that out of many, we are one.​

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Frequently asked why she returned to television after sitting out for more than a decade, Jane said she couldn’t let go of her conviction that television could be a force for good and noted that, as a program syndicated on PBS, “Common Ground” didn’t need to chase ratings or viral moments. “In this time of national crisis, we can be a tool for healing, for bringing us together,” she said at a fundraiser for the series.

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In 2024, when her breathing problems became so acute that she could no longer speak fluidly, Jane suspended production of the town-hall show. She then built a set in her living room and, resting between takes, recorded four episodes featuring remote, long-form interviews. They aired around the country in the fall of 2025 as a stand-alone miniseries with the double entendre title “Impossible Conversations for Dangerous Times.”

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In July 2025, Jane underwent a lung transplant and, despite a series of setbacks while recuperating, produced a sister series, “Sacred Ground with Tim Daly.” Hosted by the award-winning actor and climate advocate, the series focused on climate change through the stories of local heroes shaping homegrown solutions, an innovative approach designed to transcend political divisions at a time when the issue had become increasingly contentious.

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Before starting “Conversations On the Green,” known to the cognoscenti by its acronym, COG, Jane had a long and varied career in television.

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She majored in theater and English at Hamilton College, where she graduated with the first class of women admitted to the previously all-boys school, and started her career as an actor. But she soon concluded that she couldn’t cope with the repeated rejection most actors experience and became a spokesperson for Scott Paper Co., traveling around the country demonstrating the company’s products on local television shows.

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She found she preferred asking questions to answering them and convinced the ABC affiliate in Sacramento, KXTV, to hire her as a writer for its local news programs. But she craved the limelight and persuaded the station to let her star in the local introductions for “Evening Magazine,” then a wildly popular nationally syndicated celebrity show.

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The exposure led WCAU, the NBC affiliate in her hometown of Philadelphia, to hire her in 1980 to anchor the hour-long program “Morning in Philadelphia,” which earned her national recognition as the female Phil Donahue. She then joined “Entertainment Tonight” as a reporter and producer, interviewing celebrities, athletes and show business personalities appearing in Atlantic City’s casinos.

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She later covered the Salvadoran and Nicaraguan civil wars for NBC, becoming something of a household name when she filed multiple daily reports as one of the few network correspondents based in El Salvador during the 1989 guerrilla offensive, which provoked weeks of street-to-street combat in the capital.

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After she moved from Central America to Washington, D.C., in 1992, Warner Bros. chose Jane to host “NightTalk with Jane Whitney,” a cross between a talk show and Ted Koppel’s “Nightline.” Designed to live at the intersection of politics and social movements, it covered topics then considered flashpoints, such as Gays In The Military and The Lives of Sexual Minorities. Although Warner Bros., the syndicator, thought it would carve out a slice of the late-night entertainment market, many stations decided to also air it during the lucrative afternoon hours leading into the 6 p.m. local news.

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The series led to NBC’s “Jane Whitney Show,” an hour-long program inspired by Phil Donahue that focused on audience participation and brought a female perspective to daytime talk.

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But Jane became convinced that daytime talk was too dependent on scandalous confrontation and left the industry, leading Maureen Dowd to label her “a recovering talk show host” in a New York Times column about talk television’s deleterious impact. Sen. Joe Lieberman then asked her to lead his nascent campaign against pornography, but she declined because, she said, it was too censorious.

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Jane is survived by her brother, Leo Balzereit of Mt. Joy, Pa., and her husband, Lindsey Gruson.

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In lieu of flowers, those wishing to honor Jane's memory may consider a donation to the 

Washington Ambulance Association or to Conversations On the Green, Inc., which will continue the work to which Jane was so deeply committed.