Jill Marla Boxerman Ellis

I moved to Arizona, Oregon and then the SF Bay Area area, where I currently live. After high school I graduated from the University of Arizona, then attended graduate school at Lewis and Clark in Portland and completed another degree as a Parent Infant Specialist for the Hearing Impaired. In 1980 I founded a non profit organization for babies and young children who are deaf and hard of hearing and by 2014, when I officially retired as Executive Director, CEID had staff of 30, built a state of the art building and was recognized as a model program for the State of CA and US. While mostly retired, these days my schedule is filled with playing golf; taking ballet, yoga and pilates classes; driving seniors around town and visiting my kids and friends in any state, whenever they ask!

I started high school with the confidence that my older brother Keith would show me the ropes, keep me safe and introduce me to his senior friends! It was quite an entre.. I loved high school; some of the learning and mostly the sports and recreational activities. Preparing for the starting line up for basketball meant doing handsprings and back walkovers on concrete floors just outside a gym door on a freezing cold night... Clearly NOT the environment that our Olympic gymnasts enjoy today...But the games brought us great joy and friendships. Then there was chemistry, physics and calculus... what fun days! Best part was skipping across the street for a tuna fish sandwich and a chunky candy bar!