KIMBERLY JACKSON

Dr. Kimberly M. Jackson is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Director of the new Interdisciplinary Food Studies program at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. She is co-director of a new living and learning community for STEM scholars, an initiative whose goal is to improve access to STEM research careers for women of color through professional and social networks and social justice empowerment.

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Author of Realigning the Crooked Room: Spelman Claims a Space for African American Women in STEM, Dr. Jackson is a prolific scholar-teacher having mentored more than 35 students, providing them with research experiences in cancer therapeutics and drug discovery. Twenty of her former research students have earned advanced degrees, including three Ph.D.s with 12 Ph.D. candidates -all African American women- in the STEM pipeline, matriculating at tier-one research institutions in the biomedical or chemical sciences.

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Her robust and active research program focuses on four distinct areas of sustained scholarship: novel therapeutic agents for hormone refractory prostate cancer, the role of minority-serving institutions, and women of color in diversifying the STEM pipeline, innovative tools for biochemical education and food studies; each with a host of publications, presentations, and funding from multiple agencies. Her work and commitment to STEM excellence has been recognized by several organizations including the Spelman Presidential Award for Excellence in Research, Teaching and Mentoring.

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A 2015-16 Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Jackson has held a research fellow position at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA and, a visiting faculty appointment at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA in the Systems Biology department.

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She serves on the advisory board for COACh for Women Scientists and Engineers and the American Chemical Society Committee on Minority Affairs.

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In her spare time, she enjoys performing chemistry demonstrations at local elementary and middle schools, being a “taxi-service” to three very active teenagers, and a wife of a research chemist.