9/26/22 RASD Distinguished Alumni Jill Geer
26 September 2022 News
Ripon, WI – The Ripon Area School District is proud to announce that the 2022 Distinguished
Alumni Award has been awarded to Jill Geer.
Jill Geer’s career has been focused on helping U.S. Olympic athletes share their stories with
the American public. It has taken her to six Olympic games and 18 countries as the Team
USA spokesperson in track & field and gymnastics.
Jill grew up in Ripon with school, community and sports the family focus. She attended
every home RHS and Ripon College basketball and football game. At home, she took turns
reading the newspaper, did crossword puzzles and played trivia games with her family.
She graduated with honors from Ripon High School in 1988 as a state champion in cross
country and holding several records in basketball and track & field. She also played flute for
the RHS band, serving as drum major.
She was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Arkansas, earning bachelor’s and
master’s degrees in history. She was an NCAA Championships participant in cross country,
competed for the track team and was a writer and editor for the campus newspaper.
In the 1990s, she worked as a journalist in Arkansas and Washington DC, where she was a
news editor and wrote a sports column for Knight Ridder-Tribune’s national news service. In
1996, she was a production assistant for NBC at the 1996 Olympic Games, beginning her
career in Olympic sports. She was chief communications & marketing officer for USA Track &
Field for 19 years, then spent two years as chief marketing officer for American College of
Education and as a consultant for Parity, a company dedicated to generating revenue
opportunities for female athletes. In 2021, she returned to the Olympic movement as chief
communications & marketing officer for USA Gymnastics, helping the organization as it
reached a settlement with sexual assault survivors and instituted protocols to protect
athletes.
Although her career is international in scope, Jill volunteers at her Indianapolis
neighborhood food bank, has co-chaired a statewide fundraiser for the American Cancer
Society and has volunteered in multiple capacities for local churches and schools. She is a
passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion and is a frequent speaker to college and
young professionals’ groups.
Jill regularly returns to Wisconsin and credits her family and Ripon upbringing for instilling in
her the service-oriented approach that has informed her career. She lives in Indianapolis
with her husband and teen-aged son and has two adult stepsons
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