Jenifer Estess

Who was Jenifer Estess?

Jenifer Estess was a Moline, Illinois-born theatre producer. She began her career as an actor after graduating from New York University with a B.A. in drama. She was a co-founder of the Naked Angels theatre company in Manhattan; she was its producing director until 1993. She also helped found the Nantucket Film Festival and the New York Women's Film Festival.

Her memoir, Tales from the Bed: Living, Dying and Having It All, was published in 2004 and became a television movie starring Laura San Giacomo. She also started Project A.L.S., which raises funds for finding a cure for Lou Gehrig's disease, from which she suffered. She helped raise over $17,000,000 for the Project.

In 2000, she testified before Senator Arlen Specter’s sub-committee on Labor, Health, Human Services and Education. “My life and millions of others are in the hands of Congress. We are already seeing the incredible potential of stem cells to replace what is destroyed in ALS, but we need the federal government to mentor research along in the most responsible, humane way.”