Lake Forest College

Jill Wilkerson joined the Forester track and cross country coaching staffs in 2022 and was named the associate head coach of both programs in the summer of 2025. She works primarily with the distance runners (800m+) on the track and field team.

Ollie Francis broke his own school records in the men's indoor and outdoor 800m and won the event at the Midwest Conference Indoor and Outdoor Championships in 2026. On the women's side, Lettia Hoda turned in the program's fastest times in the indoor 3000m and outdoor 3000m and 5000m. Distance runners also posted 10 other times that rank them among the Foresters' top five in an event.

In Wilkerson's three seasons on staff, members of the Forester track and field team running at least 800m have broken six school records and made 25 additional updates to the program's top-five lists.

Forester cross country runners have been named all-conference six times and earned 81 Academic All-MWC accolades since Wilkerson joined the program.

Prior to coming to Lake Forest, Wilkerson spent two years as a graduate assistant coach at Aurora University, where she helped lead the men's and women's track and field teams to runner-up finishes at the 2021 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Outdoor Championships. The Spartans also finished in the top five in the league in cross country in 2021 and in both indoor and outdoor track and field in 2022.

A graduate of Augustana College, Wilkerson finished out her cross country career with a ninth-place finish at the 2019 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Championship Meet before placing 24th to earn all-region honors at the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional. In track she qualified for the 2020 NCAA Division III Championship Meet in the mile and still owns the program's fourth-fastest time in that event.