Biography
Jill is a fourth generation Nevadan. Her great-grandfather, Thomas Derby II, acquired land along the now I-80 corridor through Lovelock, the current home to both the Derby Airport and the Derby Dam. Her grandfather, Charles Derby, worked as a mining engineer in the Virginia City mines, and her father attended the 4th Ward School in Virginia City as a child before later moving to Lovelock to develop the Flying Flapjack Ranch, where Jill spent the first years of her life.
Jill attended the University of California, Berkeley and then the University of California, San Francisco, where she obtained her first bachelor's degree. After residing in the Bay Area, teaching, and traveling, she took a job with a company in Saudi Arabia in 1966 and lived there for three years. During her time in the Middle East, she learned Arabic and developed an interest in cultural anthropology. Upon returning to the United States, she earned a second bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, followed by her master's degree and her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology with a specialization in Middle Eastern cultures, both from the University of California, Davis.
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