Barbara Loomis Jackson ’50

Alumnae Achievement Awards 2003

Educator, Administrator 

Barbara Loomis Jackson ’50 was a renowned professor and chair of the Division of Educational Leadership, Administration and Policy at the Graduate School of Education at Fordham University, where she taught since 1987. She received her master's from Teachers College at Columbia University and received her doctorate in educational administration in 1970 from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Her extensive background on urban schools and leadership included experience as a professor and dean of the School of Education at Morgan State University and as associate professor and associate dean at Atlanta University's School of Education. One of her priorities was the development and implementation of doctoral programs in educational administration. She produced various publications on African-American women school superintendents, as well as leadership and political ecology in urban school systems. She was also an integral part of the research team of the 1992 study, "How Schools Shortchange Girls," at Wellesley's Center for Research on Women.

Jackson was the first African-American alumna to serve on the Wellesley Board of Trustees (1970-1988) and also served on Hampton University's Board of Trustees from 1988-1998. In 1996, she received the Dr. Kathryn I. Scanlon Award from Fordham University for her "significant contributions to education," including bringing women's and minority-group issues to the forefront.

Dr. Jackson passed away in November 2012 at the age of 84 and is survived by her daughter, son, and two granddaughters.