Kip Tiernan, also known as Mary Jane Tiernan, was a social activist. She was born in Connecticut and raised by her grandmother, and came to Boston in her early 20s. Kip Tiernan and her advocacy partner Fran Froehlich founded, helped found, or were founding members of Boston Health Care for the Homeless, Boston Food Bank, Community Works, Aid to Incarcerated Mothers, Finex House, Food for Free, John Leary House, My Sister’s Place, Transition House, the Greater Boston Union of the Homeless, and Boston’s Emergency Shelter Commission. In 1974 Kip founded Rosie's Place

Rosie's Place

Rosie’s Place is a sanctuary for poor and homeless women located in Boston, Massachusetts.- History :It was founded in 1974, by Kip Tiernan and was the first shelter specifically for poor and homeless women in the United States...

 in Boston, which was America's first shelter for homeless women. She founded this shelter in an abandoned supermarket after discovering that homeless women disguised themselves as men in hopes of getting into male-only shelters. Kip was also one of the founders of Victory House in the South End of Boston, a residential alcoholism treatment program for homeless, alcoholic men.

In 1980, Kip and Fran Froehlich co-founded the Poor People's United Fund, and from 1988 to 1990 they were fellows at the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College.

Kip's longtime companion, Edith Nicholson, died in the 1990s, and she married Donna Pomponio in 2004. Kip herself died July 2, 2011 of cancer.