Jessica Jackson MA, MPH

Biography

Jessica Jackson is a program evaluator and public health researcher. Ms. Jackson’s experience in public health has comprised working with diverse organizations and stakeholders; including governmental and military agencies, hospitals, healthcare systems, and academic institutions. Her approach to evaluation involves translating public health surveillance, health care, and programmatic data into actionable products that can be used to drive decision making and ultimately, empower communities. Most notably, Ms. Jackson’s experience lies in evaluation capacity building, global and community health, with an emphasis on needs assessment, community-based participatory research, strategic planning, and innovation.

Ms. Jackson’s theory of evaluation centers on creating collective efforts that result in recommendations that are implemented, have value, and result in positive changes for the most relevant stakeholders. Her belief is that organizations can and will change, but only through a guided coaching process that builds excitement to improve; recognizes limitations and strategizes for innovative solutions; builds capacity to continuously improve processes and offerings; and establishes infrastructure that assures sustainability.

Currently Ms. Jackson works as a contractor for the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine and serves as the Senior Assessment, Monitoring, and Evaluation (AME) Specialist for the Center for Global Health Engagement at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland. In this role, she leads and supports the AME Division in managing a diverse portfolio of evaluation studies in support of advancing research and scholarship in global health engagement. She also serves as a Master Trainer and curriculum developer for the Center in AME and an Instructor in AME for the University.

Ms. Jackson is an alumna of Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN) where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Human and Organizational Development. She also attended Claremont Graduate University (Claremont, CA), where she obtained a Master of Arts in Psychology in Health Behavior Research and Evaluation. While at CGU, she concurrently earned a Master of Public Health in Applied Biostatistics and Epidemiology. Additionally, she is currently a student in the Doctorate Program for Public Health at the Uniformed Services University.