Jill Morgenthaler

Jill Morgenthaler (born March 31, 1954) was the 2008 Democratic nominee for Illinois' 6th congressional district defeating Stan Jagla in the primary. Morgenthaler was defeated by Peter Roskam, a Wheaton, Illinois Republican, in the Nov 2008 general election, by a 16% margin (58% to 42%),

Morgenthaler is a retired Colonel in the United States Army, where she served for nearly 30 years.

Education
She has received the following degrees: a Masters of Strategic Studies from the Army War College, a Masters of Arts in International Policy Studies from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and a Bachelor of Arts from Pennsylvania State University.

Military Career
She enrolled in the ROTC at Pennsylvania State University, where she was one of ten women in the program who received full scholarships to trailblaze the integration of women into the program. She was the first female company commander in the Army Security Agency Group Korea, the first woman battalion commander in the 88th Regional Support Command, and the first woman brigade commander in the 84th Division.

She has served in Korea, Berlin, Bosnia, and Iraq. She handled disaster recovery during the San Francisco earthquake of 1989. In 2004, she handled press duties for the Army, including addressing the Abu Ghraib scandal.

During her military career, she received the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star.

Political Career
She was appointed by the Illinois Democratic Governor, Rod Blagojevich, to serve as a homeland security adviser in Illinois. She was the first woman in this role.

Morgenthaler ran, as a non-resident of the 6th congressional district after the district line was redrawn by the Republican Party when U.S. Congressman Henry Hyde was in office. Morgenthaler is now four blocks outside of the 6th Congressional District and has lived in Des Plaines, Illinois for 16 years with her husband and two teenage children. The U.S. Constitution requires only that a member, when elected, be "an inhabitant of the state in which he shall be chosen." Illinois does not have a district residency requirement.

Publications

 * The Courage to Take Command: Leadership Lessons from a Military Trailblazer. McGraw Hill, 2015.  ISBN 9780071834940