MEET JILL
NEW LEADERSHIP DELIVERING RESULTS FOR OUR COMMUNITY
I am a born and raised Downers Grove resident, attended both Fairmount School and O'Neill Junior High, and went on to graduate from Downers Grove South in 1987.
I am running for the District #58 School Board because my eight year old daughter, who is currently a third grader at Fairmount School, deserves the well-rounded, excellent education that I received many years ago.
I believe in open, honest communication and my 25 plus years of community/child advocacy and work as a licensed mental health clinician in the field of trauma/disaster/crisis intervention provides me with an excellent base of being able to provide that needed communication.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions, although I will not be responding to any specific questions pertaining to politics, as the school board is a non-partisan entity. I will be posting my views on different school board, education, and community topics as they come up.My name may be at the BOTTOM OF THE BALLOT for this election, but I will always put the students AT THE TOP! Thank you very much for visiting my page. I greatly appreciate your support and don't forget to VOTE on APRIL 4th!
JILL'S BACKGROUND
I was born in Downers Grove back in 1969, attended District 58 and 99 schools, and graduated from the University of Illinois, U-C, with a Bachelor of Science in... Psychology.
I received a Master of Science in Counseling Psychology in 1996 from Benedictine University and went on to become a licensed clinical professional counselor. My clinical experience has been primarily with victims of crime and has been in local government agencies and not-for-profits. I have also worked in the oldest children's advocacy center in the United States, the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
I moved to New York City in 2002, continued to work in the trauma field and received a Master in Public Administration in Emergency and Disaster Management from Metropolitan College of New York. I began working at the NYC Office of Emergency Management, managing the 1200 volunteer corps for emergency response and preparedness.
After having my daughter, we moved back to Illinois to be near friends and family, and to make sure she received a Downers Grove School District #58 education. Samantha attended the Grove Preschool for two years at Henry Puffer and is currently at Fairmount School in third grade.
Involvement in my daughter's life is very important to me, and I have been fortunate to be able to volunteer at school and at church in many youth activities. I am currently the Community Access Coordinator at the DuPage Children's Museum, where I work with families who may not be able to visit our Museum due to different issues and also develop and run the special needs programming for the Museum. It is a wonderful job that mixes my clinical background and love for community advocacy together in one place.