Jill Rappaport Charity Work, Events and Causes

Jill Rappaport has worked as a correspondent for TODAY and NBC News for the more than 22 years, the first 15 as entertainment reporter. While chronicling her beloved dog Jack’s bone cancer diagnosis and medical treatment on TODAY, she realized that animal welfare issues were her calling, and so her career path changed. In Rappaport’s award-winning “Bow to Wow” and “Meow to Wow” series, she helped make over shelter pets, giving them a second chance at life by putting a national spotlight on homeless animals and had a 100 percent adoption record. Rappaport is also the best-selling author of “People We Know, Horses they Love,” and has written three others books, including “Jack & Jill: The Miracle Dog with a Happy Tail To Tell,” about her beloved dog Jack, and “500 Cats.”

Rappaport is the recipient of numerous national honors and awards for her work on behalf of animal welfare. She was named the ASPCA Good Will Equine Welfare Ambassador and received the coveted Presidential Service Award for Media Excellence at the 2012 ASPCA Humane Awards. Rappaport recently launched her own line of leashes and collars called “Jill Rappaport’s Rescued Me Collection”, and has an equestrian jewelry line called “Hannah’s Heart” named after her beloved late mare and benefiting horses in need. In the spring she will be launching “Jill Rappaport’s Shelter Shake”, a wonderful toy to be given out to various shelters across the country, so animals feel like they are “one step closer to a loving home”. Rappaport lives on a farm with her five rescue dogs and seven horses, to whom she refers as her “fur angels.”