Author, historian and expert speaker Jan Cleere writes extensively about the desert southwest, particularly the people who first settled the territory. Her freelance work appears in national and regional publications including Arizona Highways Magazine, Persimmon Hill Magazine, Phoenix Woman, Tucson Guide Quarterly, The Desert Leaf, Chronicle of the Old West, and Arizona Garden.

In 2001, Jan received recognition from Arizona Highways Magazine for her article, "Hostess to the West," the life of Elizabeth Hudson Smith, a Black entrepreneur in Wickenburg, Arizona, during the early 1900s.

Also in 2001, Jan was a finalist for the Sharlot Hall Alice B. Longan award (Prescott, Arizona), which encourages serious women writers at the beginning of their literary careers.

She serves on the Coordinating Council of the Arizona Women's Heritage Trail, and is a member of the Western Writers of America, Biographers International, Military Writers Society of America, National Society of Newspaper Columnists, National Federation of Press Women, Arizona Professional Writers, Women Writing the West, Arizona Authors Association, Authors Guild, Society of Southwestern Authors, Arizona Historical Society, Nevada Historical Society, Nevada Women's History Project.

Jan lives in Oro Valley, Arizona, under the shadow of the Santa Catalina Mountains.