Janice Jackson is an independent education consultant with a focus on leadership and organizational improvement in public schools and districts, equity strategies, teaching and learning, teachers’ and principals’ professional identity, and reflective judgment of principals and teachers. Prior to her current role she was a Senior Associate with the National Equity Project. She was the Executive Director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education.

Janice Jackson picShe has worked in several academic positions. Her last roles were Lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Senior Associate on the Wallace funded Executive Leadership Program for Educators. The initiative was a multi-year collaborative effort of the Harvard Business School, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government, working with district and state superintendents and their teams to help bring high quality teaching and learning to scale. Dr. Jackson was a faculty member in the Leadership for Change Program in the Carroll School of Management at Boston College.

Prior to coming to the Harvard Graduate School of Education she was an assistant professor at Boston College in the Lynch School of Education with a joint appoint in the Department of Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum & Instruction and the Department of Educational Administration and Higher Education.

She entered higher education after serving as the Deputy Superintendent for the Boston Public Schools. During the first term of the Clinton Administration she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education for the U. S. Department of Education. She also served as Acting Assistant Secretary for the same organization.

Dr. Jackson has held several positions with the Milwaukee Public Schools in Wisconsin. Her last position with them was the Coordinator of School-based Management. The other positions she held were human relations coordinator, personnel analyst, and substitute teacher. Her professional career has included two positions with the Archdiocese of Milwaukee- the Director of the Office for Black Catholics and elementary school teacher. She has been a consultant on issues related to the reform of urban schools.

At this time her research interests are focused in four areas: 1. bridging the gap between research and practice, 2. leadership and organizational change in public schools and districts, 3. teachers’ and principals’ professional identity, and 4. reflective judgment of teachers and principals.