Jill Hammons

About Jill

• As a child, I was very sheltered—my family didn’t watch the news and we weren’t tuned into current events.
• When I got to college, I was stunned by all of the political upheaval and grew angry at my sheltered childhood—I turned to writing to express my feelings, which pushed me toward majoring in English.
• My father’s clothing business unexpectedly went bankrupt before I graduated college, and as the oldest of my siblings, I dropped out of school and got a job to help my family.
• Getting married and having kids prevented me from going back to university, but I did go to a professional college and learned front and back office skills for medical offices.
• I worked as a Medi-Cal eligibility worker in an emergency room because I loved reassuring people who couldn’t afford insurance and helping them feel better.
• After relocating to San Diego, I got a job as a public affairs assistant for the newspaper at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego because of my writing and speaking skills.
• After 28 years at Scripps—during which I had been promoted to director of special events—I was laid off because of the recession; I felt helpless because I was 58 years old at the time.
• Thanks to my drive and my confidence in what I could bring to the table, I was only unemployed for three months before I got hired as the director of membership at the USS Midway Museum.