When Olivia Cox-Phil searched the world for 10 outstanding women to model for career and motherhood, in her book, For Our Daughters: How Outstanding Women Worldwide Have Balanced Home & Career, she chose Dr. Allison Frazier Jackson as one of the 2 representatives for the United States.
When the Wall Street Journal was looking for a role model for women ready and able to serve on Fortune 500 Boards of Directors, they selected Jackson.
Both selections were a tribute to her 25+ years experience as a change manager with an international reputation for out-of-the-box thinking tied to developing leaders, continuous improvement, and innovation. She has served 21 CEOs in Fortune 500 firms, 5 NJ governors, and C-level executives in AT&T, Bristol Myers Squibb, Colgate Palmolive, Claridge Hotels, Harrah’s Hotels, Holiday Inns, Merck, Ortho-Biotech and Ortho-Pharmaceuticals, Sprint, American Chemical Society, and National Science Foundation to name a few. She first came to Rutgers University campus, at Age 14 as a high school senior and starting college. She choose New Jersey City University, instead and earned her B.A. in History. Professor Norman Beck guided her back to Rutgers University and she won the Eagleton Fellowship in Practical Politics and the Tri-State Regional Planning Fellowships at Age 18. She studied for two master’s degrees simultaneously, earning both the M.Ed and M.C.R.P. Then onto studying for her doctorate in educational administration and urban planning simultaneously. She worked a 24 graduate hours a semester program. Her advisors and later friends from the Eagleton Institute of Politics, Dr. Alan Rosenthal and Donald Herzberg encouraged her to test her theories and come back to government.
She did just that, first as a high school history teacher in Scotch Plains Fanwood (age 19); then as the first city-wide educational planner for Plainfield, NJ; …next, as the first woman county-wide planner for Somerset County, NJ with the support of Congresswoman Millicent Fenwick and Freeholder Doris Dealman..onto become the New Jersey’s first African-American associate state director of planning for all 581 school districts, and while there she created the New Jersey Department of Education’s first Office of Equal Access, to include people of color; veterans; and the disabled.
Her Rutgers colleagues were not far away and when a new position opened at RCA Corporation, Jackson was nominated and became its first African-American Vice President –again, inventing the company’s first Government Relations Information System (GRIS) connecting 8,000 scientists and engineers globally to monitor and comply with regulatory impacts for all 50 states. She trained at M.I.T. in large scale information system design and then, designed one.
After RCA, Jackson returned to her own consulting business, president, of Allison Jackson Associates. One of the few consultants to serve all 11 Casino Presidents in Atlantic City, NJ she focused on the redevelopment of the City for 40,000 residents. As a result of her efforts and advice from Dr. James Hughes and Dr. George Sternlieb of Rutgers University Bloustein School, she advanced change ideas which earned her the nicknamed of… “The Woman Who Reports to God” by the 11 casino presidents.
Her visions for Atlantic City (1980-82), tied to research at the Rutgers University’s Alexander Library, led to the building of an American City concept with the Rouse Organization, Disney Corporation and numerous Atlantic County engineers, architects and community experts to rebuild the boardwalk into a family oriented center with 9 parks, multiple uses and programs outside of gambling. It included an urban renewal center for 7,000 housing / commercial units. “We tried to reinvent Atlantic City for the benefit of the local residents…we were not successful; but it was one of the most exciting ventures of my life…:
She was referred by Rutgers University colleagues when Princeton University School was looking for a visionary to change perceptions of engineering education – after 21 job interviews, she was appointed and served, from 1986 to 1992, as first and only African-American Dean at Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science. While there she:
- Reinvented School communications, moving from paper to online and growing the circulation of the engineering newsletter, The E-Quad from 1200 to 30,000 in 3 years;
- Created the first National Engineers Week programs for students at Princeton, growing participation from 5 persons to 7,000 in 2 1/2 years (all through influence);
- Improved recruitment of both students and corporations –focused on matching internships to jobs;
- Served as a volunteer advisor to students in major engineering and science including Society of Black Engineers, Society of Women Engineers, Society of Hispanic Engineers, Native Americans in Science & Technology, American Society of Civil Engineers; National Organization of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers and computer science students interested in creating virtual worlds;
- She created with students, faculty, and alumni, 27 interactive exhibitions for aspiring engineers, including work with the Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Museum featuring African-American patents that changed the world; women’s programming with the first female Astronauts and earthquake engineering buildings in the lobby of the school.
Next she was recruited to become the first Benchmarking manager for AT&T’s $53M Operations Planning Division, promoted to Quality Consultant for Supplier Management, after nine months to the CFO organization. Where she managed the benchmarking of $17.1 Billion. to reinvent vendor behaviors across the world, with a 7 person team supporting 394 global managers. They succeeded and the company saved $24M in the first quarter under the new designs. Promoted again to Senior Consultant -Global Operations Engineering and Service Delivery for AT&T Labs. Her tenure included redesigning the quality systems for AT&T / Concert /British Telecom. Merging sales, maintenance, quality systems processes in 90 days to serve 145,000 customers in Europe and Asia.
She returned to AJA after the Labs and formed The Edwina Group, LLC to engage in process mapping and modeling to effect continuous improvements and change. She facilitated the redesign and production of the State of New Jersey’s Information Technology Plan (2005-06).
Today she has created the AJA Desktop Change Program for women seeking career advancement and is currently working on CHANGE THIS! a new framework to build collaborative teams among school leaders, community executives, and funders focused on improving student achievement grades K through PhD.
Now serving on the Board of Directors of Northwest New Jersey Community Action Program (NORWESCAP), she led a change program which amended of procedures from the NJ Board of Public Utilities that delay permissions (and money) to people in need of energy resources. It’s been fixed.
She is currently planning simulations and virtual world training programs to close achievement gaps in mathematics, science, and communications.
Of all these her greatest accomplishment has been her happy marriage to Carl Jackson, Sr. for 40 years and raising two great adults: Holly Michelle a emerging communications leader in pharmaceuticals and Carl Jackson, Jr. an intelligence specialist whose assignments cannot be detailed.