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Deborah Jackson

2012 Speaker

Deborah Jackson was appointed as the fourth president of Cambridge College in May 2011.She is an accomplished civic and non-profit leader with over 30 years of professional experience in the for-profit and non-profit sectors.  Jackson joined Cambridge College after serving for nearly a decade as CEO of the American Red Cross of Eastern Massachusetts, one of the nation’s largest Red Cross units.  Over the course of her career, Jackson has been appointed to serve on numerous commissions, task forces and boards, most recently, the Boston Green Ribbon Commission. She previously served as co-chair of the Mayor’s Task Force to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Disparities, is a member of “City to City” and also serves on the board of directors of Eastern Bank and the Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation.  For over 15 years she served as a director on the Board of the American Student Assistance Corporation. Jackson has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Pinnacle award for Achievement in Management, induction into the Women’s Business Hall of Fame, Boston magazine’s 100 Most Influential Women in Boston and was selected as a 2009 Barr Foundation Fellow for outstanding non-profit leadership.   She attended Hampton University and received her undergraduate degree from Northeastern University.  She also attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Urban Studies and Planning for graduate studies and was a Harvard University Advanced Leadership Fellow.