Biography

Dr. Celestial Wills-Jackson graduated from Old Westbury State University of New York majored in Public Health and Childhood Special Education and earning two bachelor’s degrees. She was awarded a scholarly fellowship at Queens College City University of New York, majored in Early Childhood Special Education receiving a master’s in education. Dr. Wills-Jackson also earned a second master’s degree and an advance certificate in applied behavior analysis from Hunter College City University of New York.

Dr. Wills-Jackson taught as a special educator for over 20 years. She attended the University of Central Florida (UCF) earning her Ph.D. in Exceptional Education. Her published research concentrates on evaluating social skills deficits of children exhibiting a lack of social-emotional reciprocity and poor non-vocal-verbal communication, the history of emotional and behavior disorders, and working with individuals on the autism spectrum disorder. Dr. Wills-Jackson was past Program Coordinator of the College and Career Readiness Program at UCF for young adults with autism and/or an intellectual disability. 

Currently, Dr. Wills-Jackson is an Assistant Professor at Lehman College-CUNY and Program Coordinator for the Early Childhood & Childhood Education graduate program. As Program Coordinator, she is focused on strengthening teacher performance and expanding teachers’ horizons to include postsecondary educational opportunities and career goals. Dr. Wills-Jackson has worked effortlessly with the transformation of Lehman’s School of Education Teacher Preparation program. Her extensive collaborative work with University School Partnerships for the Renewal of Educator Preparation (USPREP) and diverse universities across the country has afforded her research and service to be published in a nationally acclaimed article with Emerald Publishing, “Self-study using data to inform student teacher supports in a transformed teacher preparation program,” (in-review) and with the world-wide acclaimed Routledge Publishing-Taylor & Francis textbook, “Collaborating for Transformative Change in Education Lessons from Within a Teacher-Educator Coalition, Chapter 8:Transforming Clinical Experiences through Cultivating Faculty Buy-in: A Three-Year Journey at Two Urban Public Colleges. This book collates the practitioner stories of USPREP teacher preparation programs across the nation, documenting the programs’ efforts to enact scaled transformative practices within their institutions. Dr. Wills-Jackson’s chapter focuses on transformative practices within Lehman and Brooklyn City University of New York.