Jill Gentile has over 35 years of experience serving individuals with disabilities and their families in a diverse range of service settings. Within her current role, Jill is responsible for the overall delivery of supports and services within The Foundling’s DD Division. Jill began her career as a Direct Support Professional at Ability Beyond Disability (ABD), a private, non-profit agency located in Connecticut.

While at ABD Jill was promoted to Executive Director of the New York Division, responsible for developing a comprehensive array of services in New York State. In 2008, Jill was appointed as the Director of Hudson Valley DDSO, the local regional office of OPWDD. Her responsibilities included managing the delivery of services to people with Developmental Disabilities through the State agency as well as through the over 70 voluntary, non-profit providers in the region. In this role she directly supported OPWDD’s mission to enhance and develop individualized and self-directed services.

In 2010, Jill became OPWDD’s Associate Commissioner for Service Delivery overseeing the five regions supporting over 700 voluntary providers. Jill directly assisted in the restructuring of OPWDD to align with the new People First Waiver and with OPWDD’s new Transformation Agenda. Of special note, while at OPWDD Jill was a key player in the closures of 2 institutions and in the planning for additional campus closures; reducing OPWDD’s institutional census from 1,200 to 965.

Jill was also OPWDD’s lead person on not only addressing the on-going challenge of identifying the young adults aging out of school each year, but also identifying the children already in institutional placements and to craft plans to serve these individuals in community-based settings. Jill is a proven advocate for creating individualized, self-directed services that allow for true community participation for individuals with developmental disability and their families.