Jen Dille

Athlete, Educator/Teacher, Event planner, Foodie, Parent, Project manager

I am a 4th generation native of Arizona. I went to college at Brigham Young University and got a degree in Secondary Education Social Science and then decided I didn't want to teach. I married my sweetheart Brian and we have 4 amazing kids, 2 boys and then 2 girls. My life is my family! I try to juggle my many responsibilities as a mom, project manager for Sure Spark Marketing, executive director of Hope Arising and just being a human. I am addicted to traveling and am lucky enough to travel with Hope Arising one to two times a year to Ethiopia. I have taught piano. I used to hate running then my friend taught me how to and now I love it. I've run 2 half-marathons and plan to run 3 more before I turn 50. I am a doer and like to be busy. I am a upholder and set high goals for myself. I crave change and variety yet have lived mostly in the same place. To cure this wanderlust, we have taken our family to almost every state in America. I love to challenge myself. I love to learn new ideas so I feel like while I was a SAHM, TED saved my mental life.

Travel, my children, eating, my faith and squeezing the most I can out of every day.

I was a SAHM and it was hard for me. I yearned to be out in the "real" world. I learned how to make my little home real & enjoyable for me and my kids by talking to them about ideas I would learn about, through watching TED talks and reading a lot of non-fiction. Now that my kids are older (2 in college, one a senior in high school and the last in Jr high), we still love to talk about ideas. We'll call each other or sit at the dinner table and share what we learned in class or listening to TED talks. Last Christmas break, we had TEDxDillecasa (not an officially licensed TEDx event as we decided to forego the application process!) where each member shared what they'd learned that semester. It was amazing to learn from each other!

I don't know that I can finish this sentence starter because I feel like it doesn't apply to me. My talents (piano, teaching, photography, etc) easy to view publicly and I'm not shy about sharing them. I feel like people know exactly what they're getting with me.