by Natasha Khairullah
Staff Writer
Jill Jinks has been appointed the 2006-07 chairperson of the executive committee for Jacksonville Community Council Inc. Forward.
Jinks was appointed in July after she was selected by the organization’s executive committee. Kay Ehas, the immediate past chair, said Jinks is an ideal person to lead the organization this year.
“I think she is passionate about Forward and its mission,” said Ehas. “She’s been on the executive committee for a while and so she has a very thorough understanding of Forward and how it works.”
Jinks, 35, has been involved with JCCI Forward for four years. She has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C., and a master’s in business administration from Jacksonville University.
She currently also works full-time at Vurv Technologies as an accountant and previously served as the Director of Finance for WJCT.
Jinks said those positions helped prepare her for her role as chair, as did the experience at JCCI Forward as recruitment chair and chair elect.
JCCI Forward, an initiative of JCCI, is open to individuals ages 25 to 45 years of age interested in community involvement, said Jinks. The opportunity to help younger community members flourish is one thing that really attracted her to JCCI Forward.
“We want to develop emerging leaders as well as provide them with a venue to learn and grow,” said Jinks.
She has already set some goals as chair that she hopes to accomplish over time.
“I’d really like us to increase our membership as well as diversify it,” said Jinks, adding she hopes to add at least 100 more members to the current 300-plus.
Jinks is also excited about two new forum topics for the next year: gay rights in the Northeast Florida community and teen suicide.
“The forums are really important,” said Jinks. “They provide opportunities for discussion, they bring awareness and they help us put together a course of action on how to create change.”
Issue Forums offer participants an eight-week venue to interact with community leaders and resource experts on issues of concern to Northeast Florida’s citizens. Participants explore topics critical to the community’s growth, seek understanding of related problems, and come to consensus on key findings. An Issues Forum report is released to the public and followed with an action plan that can be implemented by citizen volunteers over the course of a year.