In remembrance of Jill Hightower, MA, a remarkable individual and champion of seniors’ and women’s rights
Jill was elected to the BC CRN Board in 2013 and served as Co-Chair during our important developmental years. She was much loved and respected and will be sorely missed.
Here are a few of her career and life’s accomplishments at the time of her term on the BC CRN Board of Directors:
Jill Hightower, MA, started her professional career in Canada as an M.A student and sessional instructor at Simon Fraser University. While continuing as an instructor for a time, she began working for Forensic Psychiatric Services of the BC Ministry of Health and became the senior policy analyst. From 1991 to 1998, she served as Executive Director of the BC Institute Against Family Violence. On her retirement, she partnered with Greta Smith and Henry Hightower, Ph.D. in a small research and educational consulting group with a specific focus on social and health issues affecting older adults. Jill has presented her research at North American and European conferences and community forums. In 2006, she co-authored a manual on programme standards for working with older abused women.
Jill has been honoured with the Senior Leadership Award of Simon Fraser University’s Gerontology Research Centre. She was a member of the BC Premier’s Council on Aging and Seniors Issues. She was a Past President of BCCEAS, the BC Coalition to Eliminate Abuse of Seniors, former Chair of the Sunshine Coast Seniors Network Action Group, a member of the United Nations Sub-Committee on Older Women (SCOW) of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women (CSW). She served a six-year term as a member of the Enquiry Committee of the BC College of Psychologists. She also chaired the Sunshine Coast Community Health Council.
Among her publications are numerous papers and reports published by the BC/Yukon Society of Transition Houses and other service agencies and papers and chapters in peer-reviewed journals and books.
She was a member of the Sunshine Coast Community Response Network, a member of the advisory committee for Older Women’s Dialogue, a project of the Canadian Centre for Elder Law and served on the advisory committee for the Atira House Participatory Evaluation of Ama House & Sava Centre-Ouest transition house services for older abused women fleeing abuse. She worked to establish a Friendship and Support Group on the Sunshine Coast for older women.
