Jill Evans Petzall makes films, media art, writes poetry, & teaches about social justice from a female perspective. She is the winner of 4 Emmy awards, among other honors including the Distinguished Alumna Award from Washington University’s School of Arts and Sciences, and a Maya Angelou Award for Media Literacy. Jill’s works have been on broadcast and cable television, shown in art galleries and film festivals, and used in state legislatures and non-profit agencies as advocacy tools to promote the rights of women around the world.

Jill’s work as a filmmaker has focused on the arts and on multiple issues concerning social justice. She has made documentaries on such wide-ranging topics as Maestro Leonard Slatkin, formerly of the St. Louis Symphony, poet T. S. Eliot, the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the U.S. Orphan Trains of the mid-19th century, the prevention of spouse abuse and the sexual abuse of children, promoting family literacy, immigration rights, and the rights of children with mothers in prison. Her multi-media, interactive installation “Still Lives with Stories,” will be featured at The Sheldon Galleries in 2017.

Jill has been an Adjunct Instructor at Washington University, Webster University, and the Honors College, University of Missouri-St. Louis.  She lectures regularly at conferences and screenings nationwide and in Canada. She draws upon a graduate degree in Philosophy and an undergraduate degree in English Literature and Philosophy (magna cum laude) from Washington University.

She grew up with radio, and is committed to the oral tradition in her media art to help make change she wants to see in the world.