Biographical Background
Jill was raised in Virginia where she started performing in public at the age of three, entertaining her church audience with several verses of "Jingle Bells". From that point on, it was hard to keep her off the stage. Considering herself primarily a vocalist, she made extra money singing for weddings and scored highest in talent in pageants and other contests. She graduated from Emory & Henry College with a bachelor's degree in Voice and minors in both drama and art. Jill earned a Masters in speech and theatre directing from Louisiana State University and discovered her love of teaching as a graduate teaching assistant. She also pursued professional acting, primarily in the dinner theatre arena. Finding it hard to make ends meet with acting, she worked in a series of interesting jobs which included plains-clothes detective for a department store, writing and producing training videos for a major oil refinery, singing telegrams, custom photography lab work, census taking, running a drama ministry, selling designer dresses, cantoring for Catholic churches, and several waitressing stints, all of which gave her an interesting perspective of the world and broadened her life experience immeasurably. It also taught her that she should probably pursue teaching if she wanted to support herself, so she landed a few short-term positions as adjunct instructor at DeKalb Community College, Augusta College, Pellissippi State and Roane State community colleges.
After kissing way too many frogs, Jill married a wonderful prince and had two amazing children whom she devoted most of her energies to while teaching at Maryville College (as Director of Theatre) and then the University of Tennessee, from which she recently retired. She has one granddaughter whom she adores and spoils shamelessly. Along the way, she has stayed active in her professional field by doing freelance directing, acting, photography, and writing, as evidenced by her resume.
Jill has enjoyed a lifetime passion for animal rights and feminist causes. She resides in Tennessee near Knoxville with her husband and four rescued animals.
After kissing way too many frogs, Jill married a wonderful prince and had two amazing children whom she devoted most of her energies to while teaching at Maryville College (as Director of Theatre) and then the University of Tennessee, from which she recently retired. She has one granddaughter whom she adores and spoils shamelessly. Along the way, she has stayed active in her professional field by doing freelance directing, acting, photography, and writing, as evidenced by her resume.
Jill has enjoyed a lifetime passion for animal rights and feminist causes. She resides in Tennessee near Knoxville with her husband and four rescued animals.