meet the board

Jennifer grew up in a small town in Illinois. She was the fourth of five children and was raised in a “normal” home.

She graduated from Western Illinois University with a BA in Political Science and eventually became an advocate for individuals with Intellectual Disabilities for more than twenty years. After she and her husband raised their four boys, she pursued her master’s degree in Legal Studies from Purdue University Global, focusing on family/disability law and legal research. During and after her education, she did not change her occupation to take advantage of her legal studies and often wondered “why did I waste my money on those legal degrees?”

That question was answered in a very rude fashion when her home was raided by several agents from local, state and federal agencies. During the raid, they took one of her children away for questioning. This was when it all “clicked.”  This is when she knew the purpose for the legal degrees that she previously thought to be useless.

She began to meet with US Senators to share her story and started making connections with other groups that were working on the same focus of judicial reform. She soon connected with other families that were facing similar issues. She started a focus group to work on judicial reform that eventually merged with United Voices for Sex Offense Reform.

She has been a member of a not-for-profit advisory board for more than ten years. Through this venture she has worked on organization of special events, promoting the program and networking with other non-profit groups to meet needs of special requests. She received an Illinois State Governor volunteer award for her volunteer duties with this program.

Jennifer continues to merge the knowledge from her degree programs with the experience of her advocacy work to become a voice for judicial change. She has continued to strengthen and use this voice to help others in similar circumstances as well.

She takes great pride in helping other families and letting them know that they are not alone in this nightmare involving sex offenses. Jennifer no longer questions the educational and employment choices she made earlier in her life; in fact, she embraces them and will continue to put them to good use in her life of advocacy.