Meet Jillian
Fighting for Northampton Values
Jillian, a Western Massachusetts native, was raised in Holyoke, MA. After a tumultuous childhood marked by a mother who struggled with addiction and helping to raise her younger brother she left home at 17. Jillian immediately went to work and began providing for herself. A first generation college student, she has run two successful downtown Northampton restaurants and the Downtown Northampton Association and worked as an advocate for social change and political participation. Jillian lives in Northampton with her four year old son Henri.
Jillian’s Experience
Jillian was a Frances Perkins Scholar and graduated from Mount Holyoke College as a non-traditional student in 2017. While attending college, Jillian worked at Sylvester’s Restaurant and as a grassroots organizer. She has extensive experience as the leader of a successful local business, she started at the counter and worked her way from there to serving, hosting, and working in the kitchen. Eventually, she became the Vice President of Operations for Roberto's and Sylvester's restaurants. Jillian co-created The Sphere, securing a $200,000 grant to support female and non-binary entrepreneurs, led the Downtown Northampton Association where she helped to bring back community events like The Taste of Northampton, secured non-profit status, managed $300,000 of ARPA funding to support small businesses, led a strategic plan and developed the Downtown Business Owners Forum to bring business owners together to help alleviate barriers in real time and share and develop resources. Jillian has also worked for the New Jersey Reentry Corporation where she brought it $1.2M in state grant funding to establish and operate workforce development programs for folks returning from prison, worked for Senator Elizabeth Warren in Washington DC and Springfield, and worked to elect Alex Morse as Mayor of Holyoke where she was named Holyoke Democrat of the Year.
Jillian’s Family
Jillian and her son live in an apartment on Graves Avenue. Next year, Henri will begin kindergarten at Bridge Street School. Jillian and Henri enjoy playing at the Bridge Street playground, walking around town getting ice cream and visiting the train table, and spending time in the children’s section at the library. Jillian and Henri’s dad Chris love watching him play T-ball. Henri also loves holding signs for his mom!
Jillian Believes
Northampton is at a critical juncture where we need strategic financial management, proactive community engagement, and collaborative governance. We can strengthen public education, improve public services, prioritize operational budgets over capital projects, and improve our community’s well-being.
Jillian wants to bring the perspective of working parents, renters, and small business owners to city governance, bolster the economic opportunities for city residents, invest in our people, and ensure city policies work for the citizens of Northampton.
Hey Northampton -
I had the wonderful opportunity to share my story as part of the 'Tell her this' community storytelling event earlier this month Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity.
This video is me and I am grateful for all that I have been through - because it has led me here and, I believe as well as those who have had the chance to get to know me, that it has given me the lived and work experience to be the Mayor our community needs to lead us through all that is shifting a changing around us.
In the words of Cathy McNally following the performance:
"Thank you to Jillian for Northampton for sharing an honest and moving story her life at the Bombyx “Tell her this” community storytelling event on October 5. It was the kind of authentic story you don’t normally hear from a mayoral candidate in election season.
But maybe it should be.
Jillian told the audience about growing up in a family with love, closeness, and trouble. Lots of trouble. As a fourteen-year-old, Jillian was rushed out of adolescence and shoved into the sudden responsibility of being a parent to her younger brother. Soon after that her family stability was disrupted, and Jillian became an independent adult when most of us were going to prom.
Jillian’s story, beautifully written and told, showed us a human being willing to share the chaos and struggles of a difficult life right next to its considerable achievements. She avoids self-pity or victimhood, and there’s no heroics, just the willingness to generously share some of the experiences that made her who she is now.
I hope others get to hear this story. And I would love to have a mayor who understands, personally, the real trouble that so many of the people of Northampton – and their children – face every day, right here in Northampton. Jillian has lived It and Jillian gets it."