We had the good fortune of connecting with Jennifer Hill and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
For the first 8 years of my career I did not pay any attention to what my work life balance was. During law school we worked/studied at all hours and this seemed to naturally transfer into my work life once I started my legal career. It seemed normal to me that I often worked evenings and weekends. Eventually it got to the point where I worked overnight shifts or was on call. Toward the end of my time as a prosecutor I actually worked every weekend for several months. Once I began my family I realized I could no longer prioritize work the way I had been, regardless of how much I loved it. I shifted into a new role working at The Children’s Assessment Center and this provided me a much better work life balance. Having the time away from work has allowed me to be a better mom and a better employee because I don’t burn out from working all of the time. I am able to be in a field that I care deeply about and have a much better balance.  Honestly, without this change, I’m not sure I could keep up with our ten month old!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Getting where I am today professionally wasn’t easy. I took out a great deal of debt to get my undergraduate degree and go to law school. I started my career as a prosecutor and worked a lot because I was dedicated to my job. The last two years I was a prosecutor I focused on child sexual abuse cases and other serious felony charges. Working on those cases can be difficult mentally and emotionally due to the nature of the offenses, but I really love feeling like I am helping victims.  For the past 2 years, I have been the Assistant Executive Director at The Children’s Assessment Center (The CAC) our mission is to protect children, heal families, and prevent abuse from happening in our community. The CAC is Harris County’s only advocacy center where we provide healing services to almost 5,000 children who are survivors of child sexual abuse and child sex trafficking each year. We work daily to try to prevent children from being abused so that hopefully they will never need our services. Throughout my career, I have learned that I may not be able to save every child, but that each child is worthy of having someone advocate for them. All children deserve to be safe, and I’d like the world to know that we can all help make a difference in the life of a child.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
My favorite spots in the city are:

Jeni’s Ice Cream – the best ice cream on Earth
Superica – for the fantastic margaritas
Three Brothers Bakery – for the best brownie I’ve ever tried in my over three decades of brownie addiction
Hang out spots – Buffalo Bayou for a stroll and Rice Village for the shopping!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to dedicate my shoutout to my mom. My mom moved here from Brazil after meeting my father and didn’t know anyone. After my parents were married, my father joined the military and was gone for several months at a time. During this time my mom took care of the house, took care of me, learned English, and had to quickly adjust to a whole new culture without any of her family to support her. She has spent her whole life committed to making life great for her kids and instilled in me a great sense of family. She deserves a great deal of credit for the person I am today and is my role model to this day.

Website: www.cachouston.org

Instagram: @thecachouston

Facebook: @TheCACHouston

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Hetmaniak1

Image Credits
Jacob Power Photography (headshot and photo in front of the step & repeat)

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