Jill (Harlan) Youse
West 1996
When Jill (Harlan) Youse set out to help infants who had been orphaned by HIV/AIDS in South Africa, she created a way for mothers across the United States to help in a way that only a mother can – by providing donor breast milk. In areas where poverty and disease claim the lives of millions of babies each year, donor breast milk can be the difference between life and death.
In 2006, Youse pioneered the revolutionary, nonprofit International Breast Milk Project (breastmilkproject.org), whose mission is to create awareness of the need for donor human milk, mobilize donors and provide donor human milk to infants in need. In just two years, the International Breast Milk Project has grown to become one of the leading milk banks worldwide, helping moms with extra breast milk become overnight philanthropists. Over 1,000 moms from across the U.S. have donated their milk. International Breast Milk Project has provided over 119,000 ounces (approximately 29,000 bottles, or 937 gallons) of safe, pasteurized donor milk to infants in Africa and over 250,000 ounces of donor milk to Prolacta Bioscience for processing for a human milk fortifier for critically ill infants in the United States. In addition, the organization has granted over $140,000 for health care development and milk banks in Africa.
In November 2007, International Breast Milk Project earned the Charities Review Council seal of approval for organizational governance, transparency and financial accountability. In June 2008, Social Venture Partners recognized Youse for her social entrepreneurship and innovation.
Youse has been featured in numerous media, including “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “ABC World News,” “Good Morning America,” Time.com, Foreign Policy Magazine, The New York Daily News and National Public Radio. She was selected as an Action Hero by Women’s Health Magazine in 2006, and was named “Person of the Week” by ABC World News in 2007.
Youse earned her B.A. in communication at Truman State University in 2001. Youse and her husband, Dr. Jeremy Youse, a dermatology resident at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., are the proud parents of two daughters, two dogs and a three-legged cat. International Breast Milk Project was inspired by Youse’s maternal grandmother, Mildred Early, who encouraged her to breastfeed and donated funding to help start the organization.
Youse says that the friendships and lessons she learned at Claymont Elementary School are the ones she constantly goes back to. She also says that her success in life has been made possible by the love of her parents, Bill and Elaine Harlan, the example of her brother, Will Harlan (West ’92) and the humor of her best friend since second grade, Liz Fine (West ’96).