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Jeanne Dost was born on August 12, 1929 in Walla Walla, Washington to Marge and William Ebbert. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1951 from Washington State University, where she also met her husband Frank Dost. In 1953, she received a MA in Economics from Radcliffe; in 1959 she received her Ph.D, also in Economics, from Harvard. After receiving her Ph.D, she taught at Washington State University and Oregon State University. In 1967 she became the first woman appointed to the editorial board of the peer-reviewed journal Regional Science; in that same year she was also the only woman on a panel of nine economists invited to facilitate a National Conference on Mobility sponsored by Cornell University. In 1970 she was an NSF Fellow in Urban Economics at Stanford; she was the only female NSF Fellow that year. In 1981 Dost served as a senior consultant for the US Department of State. In addition to her academic work, Dost was active politically and was particularly interested in women's issues. In 1972 Dost was elected as the first President of the Oregon Women's Political Caucus and served in that capacity until 1974. She was also a member of the National Women's Political Caucus Steering Committee from 1971-73. In 1978, Dost was approved by the OSSHE (Chancellor, Board of Higher Education, and Education Coordinating Commission) to offer a Certificate in Women Studies from OSU. Dost was also one of the cofounders of OSU's Women's Center and Women's Studies Department, of which she was the Director. She died on June 9, 2012.
The Jeanne Dost papers include reports, correspondence, publications, and other materials relating to Dost's work as a professor at Oregon State University and her political involvement with groups such as Oregon NOW and the Oregon Women's Political Caucus. Topics covered include sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace, women in education, the Women's Studies Department at Oregon State University, and the Equal Rights Amendment. Materials also include records of Dost's many awards.