RPI's Jackson was on a science, leadership track from a young age
University president discusses her job, life at Times Union Leadership Luncheon
Published 3:25 pm, Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
Were you SEEN at the Times Union Leadership Luncheon, “The Challenge of Leadership in Higher Education” with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute?
COLONIE — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson was on a leadership and a science track from a young age.
As a young girl growing up in Washington, D.C., she organized neighborhood kids to sweep the sidewalks, putting debris in neat piles in order to help the street cleaning trucks that would come by on a regular basis.
Then, with an interest in natural sciences, she collected bumblebees which she kept in Mason jars. She would vary their diets, the temperature and lighting to see how it impacted them, although she added "I always tried to let them go before they died."
Her high school's valedictorian, Jackson went on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied physics and became the nation's first African-American woman to earn a PhD at the school.
From there it was on to the renowned Bell Labs in New Jersey, a series of state appointments and honors, leading to a job chairing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the Clinton Administration.
She came to RPI in 1999.
Jackson recounted her journey to RPI and acknowledged the various people and programs that helped pave her path forward during a talk Wednesday at a Times Union Leadership Luncheon at the Hearst Media Center.
The luncheons provide a forum and networking opportunities for local leaders in business, education and politics.
Jackson said she's had both witting and unwitting mentors along the way.
Her mother, a teacher, taught her and her siblings to read before they started school. And her father devised a way to fix boat rudders used for the military's Normandy invasion during World War II.
Had he been born later, during less segregated times, he would have been an engineer, she said.
As it was, Jackson said she was fortunate to be in public schools when they were desegregated following the Brown v. Board of Education decision.
Moreover, the Space Race was in full swing and the nation's leaders believed schools needed to emphasize science and technology, especially after the old Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world's first satellite.
Her school set about recruiting top teachers and they set up a tracking system. Jackson, after an assessment in sixth grade, ended up in an advanced academic track.
"I ended up in this accelerated program with these teachers who were the best in the country," she said.
"We had an assistant principal for girls and an assistant principal for boys, and the assistant principal for boys was the one who thought I should go to MIT," Jackson said.
Making the transition from theoretical physics to running organizations like the NRC or RPI isn't as much of a jump as one would think, she said.
Physics entails studying a lot of complexity. But gauging human behavior, as well as the thickets of laws and regulations that come into play in a leadership role has complexities too.
"I've always been one to try to understand people where they are," she said.
rkarlin@timesunion.com • 518-454-5758 • @RickKarlinTU