Emily Jillette: Outspoken Leader

After settling into married life as “Mrs. Penn & Teller,” Emily Jillette (wife of Penn) found herself feeling a little restless. So the unreserved local celebrity, who speaks out on everything from parenting to atheism and self-improvement, reached out and asked a friend about philanthropic volunteerism.

It just so happened that her friend was working with Opportunity Village, and the organization was holding an event the very next week.

“There was a woman there who had been in a car accident and become disabled, both mentally and physically,” Jillette says. “She had made these beautiful scarves and she was selling them there. It’s not that I think of myself as invincible, but up until then I had never really thought, This is something that can happen to anybody.”

That was four years ago, and now Jillette is one of the organization’s most active volunteers. In addition to her fundraising efforts, last year, the avid poker player served as chairwoman for the organization’s Celebrity Poker Tournament.

This fall, she’ll again match up two of her interests: The impressive golfer has teamed up with Caesars’ Cascata Golf Course (Jillette is the only female member of the prestigious club) to arrange Around the Green Opportunity Village, a chipping and putting clinic for the organization’s patrons. “To be frank, I didn’t feel like I was working hard enough just making phone calls,” she says. —MARK ADAMS

Gown, Laundry by Shelli Segal. Earrings and ring, Van Cleef & Arpels. The Shoppes at The Palazzo