About

Jump with Jill is a multimedia health program that teaches kids about nutrition through entertainment. The show is currently formatted as a touring live show, an audio CD, and a blog. Jump with Jill addresses an urgent need to connect with kids in a time when advertisements for high fat, high sugar foods and endless opportunities to choose the couch over physical activity are at an all-time high. Jill Jayne turns the media machine on its head to produce interactive media that gets kids engaged, moving and learning.

Jill Jayne, MS, RD, is the country's only Rockstar Nutritionist. She is the leading expert in creating and delivering interactive media about health to kids and families. Jill is the creator and lead performer of Jump with Jill, as well as the Executive Producer of the show's accompanying audio CD, Get Me Goin'. Jill's knack for rock 'n roll nutrition is the result of being a registered dietitian mixed with her musical experience as lead singer-songwriter of her band Sunset West. Sunset West has toured and recorded extensively in the mainstream music scene including The Vans Warped Tour and The Next Great American Band on FOX. Many Sunset West members are featured on the Get Me Goin’ CD. Jill’s experience as an off-Broadway actress, Radio Disney DJ, sketch comedy music writer and performer, and jazz pianist have also contributed to her musical expertise. In addition to being an accomplished musician, Jill is a registered dietitian with a master's degree in nutrition education from Columbia University and a bachelor's in nutrition and theater from Penn State University. The resulting combination launched a unique and exciting career in nutrition entertainment. Before becoming a professional Rockstar Nutritionist, Jill was writer, producer and host of the nationally-syndicated, nationally-acclaimed children's nutrition news program What's in the News for PBS and a New York City public school teacher. Jill hails from Pittsburgh and now resides in New York City.

“What did you do to her?,” a parent asked Jill. “She doesn’t want soda anymore!? I’ve been trying to get her to stop drinking that stuff for years, and she spends one hour with you and won’t touch it? Really, Jill, this is absurdly wonderful.”

Comments like these are no accident, but the work of years of perfecting the idea that kids would want to make healthy decisions if the information was presented to them in an engaging way. Jill wrote Jump with Jill in the spring of 2006, opened the show just outside of the Central Park Zoo and collected tips in a tin pot. For six hours a day, Jill slaved through the heat to test her materials and concepts, and grow a committed fan base. By the fall of 2006, Jill was touring New York State, and by 2007, headlining national conferences on the power of her medium. After touring schools all over the Northeast, Jill began development of professional recordings of the show’s songs. The CD Get Me Goin’ was officially released in October 2008 at the Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo (FNCE) in Chicago, sponsored by the American Dietetic Association.  Here Jill performed for a standing-room-only group of nutrition professionals from around the world. Bookings streamed in from around the country, and in the spring of 2009, Jill took her show in a van to schools and venues across the country for the show's first national tour. The press were atwitter as she made the covers of many local and regional papers, including The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Indianapolis Star, The Pittsburgh Tribune Review, and The Burlington Free Press. Her favorite coverage, though, was filming Good Morning Wisconsin in Green Bay where she got to wear a Cheesehead on-air for more than just the calcium.

During the tour, Jill launched a video blog, "On the Beat with the Rockstar Nutritionist," chronicling her whereabouts and nutritional conundrums during the tour. Since then, the blog has transformed into a critical commentary on food issues and new food products that relate to kids and families.

As of June 2009, the show has reached nearly 70,000 kids through almost 500 performances.

Jill works as a spokesperson directly and indirectly for partners, organizations, and healthy food companies that share her drive to educate kids through entertainment. Jill proudly plays Daisy Rock guitars, a specialty line of guitars from Alfred Publishing, with smaller necks and completely bedazzled to encourage more girls to learn to play. Jill has partnered with Breakfast BREAKS to promote the importance of breakfast by offering five schools a chance to win a free Jump with Jill show.

Jill is in constant production with new tools for teachers, parents, and kids that are sure to make engaging health education a rite of childhood. Keep your eyes peeled for our whereabouts as we move into the national media circuit!