Planned Parenthood of Illinois Board Member to Join Compassion & Choices Board
Chicago-based CEO Jill Gordon to Help Nation’s Largest Nonprofit Dedicated to Improving End-of-Life Care
Jul 1, 2021 Jill Gordon
Compassion & Choices today announced it has appointed Jill Gordon, CEO and co-founder of KidSnips, Chicagoland’s leading children’s hair salon chain with $4.5 million in sales and more than 90 employees, to join its board of directors. Compassion & Choices is the oldest, largest, and most active nonprofit working to improve care and expand options for the end of life in the United States. Gordon’s prior charitable board responsibilities include serving as a: 1) board member since 2017 of Planned Parenthood of Illinois and she currently serves as chair of its Investment Committee and a member of its Finance and Strategies committees; 2) former board member for 20 years and former board treasurer for 10 years of Tuesday’s Child, a local, behavioral intervention program for at-risk, highly-stressed families from all income levels; and 3) co-chair since 2005 of CARE Chicago Women’s Initiative, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising funds, advocacy and creating awareness for the large international, humanitarian organization CARE. “I have spent the bulk of my philanthropic career working to improve the lives of women, children, and families,” said Gordon. “Now I want to dedicate significant time to improving the lives of people near or at the end of life. Compassion & Choices’ dedication to expanding the care options for people with advanced and terminal diseases is the perfect fit for me.” Gordon has taken six international trips with CARE to monitor and evaluate projects in developing countries. In addition, her family has informally adopted two Rwandan daughters. “Jill has decades of experience in the business and nonprofit worlds that will help us continue to grow and fulfill our mission to expand and improve end-of-life care,” said Kim Callinan, president and CEO of Compassion & Choices. “Jill’s legacy of volunteerism shows she doesn’t just talk the philanthropic talk, she actually walks it and lives it.” Gordon graduated with a B.S. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1979 and received an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Business School in 1980. “Jill’s business education and entrepreneurial credentials as a CEO and co-founder of her own company would benefit any nonprofit looking to expand its influence, and we are thrilled that she has chosen Compassion & Choices,” said Jerri Shaw, chair of the Compassion & Choices board of directors as well as co-founder and former president of JBS International, Inc., a consulting firm that works to strengthen health care, social service, and education systems in the United States and internationally. “The Board and staff are thankful that she is bringing her talents to Compassion & Choices to help us advance patient-driven, end-of-life care.”