Meet Jill Schupp!

Meet Jill Schupp
Jill Schupp’s path spans classrooms, creative departments, and the Missouri Capitol—always with one aim in mind: turn care into concrete outcomes. A former teacher who spent two decades in advertising before public service, Jill brings a builder’s mindset to every role she takes on. Her throughline is clear: service sharpened by listening.
Early on, Jill learned to pair conviction with community. After years balancing agency work and motherhood, she stepped into civic life and ran for the Ladue school board. The race was contentious, but she kept her focus on what would help students and teachers most. After her win, she moved quickly with a new superintendent to modernize facilities, including getting air conditioning into schools. One quiet cornerstone of her leadership was the “kitchen cabinet”—a circle of trusted friends who pushed her thinking and her delivery. “We met on a regular basis, weekly, I would say, around my kitchen table.” 

From city council to the Missouri House to two terms in the State Senate, Jill governed the way she campaigned: by showing up, asking hard questions, and doing the unglamorous work of coalition-building. Even in the minority party, she found practical ways to move policy. She also invested in relationships across the aisle, literally driving to colleagues’ districts to see their challenges firsthand. “We often found common ground in ways you wouldn’t expect.” Notable wins from her time in office include improving daycare safety standards and expanding access to sexual-assault forensic exams so survivors can get a rape kit at any Missouri hospital (going into effect in 2026.) 

Ask Jill what fuels her and she’ll tell you a story from childhood, when she vowed to pack a suitcase with food to give to anyone who was hungry. (Her food of choice? Prime steak.) The metaphor stayed with her. As she puts it, “There are many ways people are hungry.”  That lens shaped years of constituent office hours, annual community health fairs, and, more recently, the Friends of Democracy group she convened to channel local energy into practical action. It also helped inspire a bipartisan project with the 11 women serving in the Senate during her tenure: a literacy initiative that produced You Can, Too, a children’s book highlighting the journeys of all 36 women who have served in the Missouri Senate, with 10,000 copies distributed to schools statewide.

Beyond public service, Jill’s creativity shows up in everyday ways—arranging flowers, hosting for family and friends,  and losing herself in textures and textiles at museum exhibits. She’s a frequent face at St. Louis County Library programs and is starting to learn pickleball. Family is central; she and her husband split time between St. Louis and Denver to be close to their sons and granddaughters.

What she’s recommending now: The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker.  Great outcomes start with intentionality and the right people in the room.

At the heart of it, Jill is warm, welcoming, and sharply clever. If you meet her at a Forum event, pull up a chair—there’s always room at her kitchen table.

Connect with her on LinkedIn here