Click Here To Listen Nashville Business 100 Leading Women Yolanda J Jackson
Yolanda J. Jackson, an educator, uses the landscape of Music City Nashville to create platforms for teachers and professionals from the entertainment industry to share knowledge to engage students to excel in high school and to gain transferable skills for employment.
Yolanda is an educator for Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. Currently, she holds the position of academy coach for Pearl-Cohn Entertainment Magnet High School. As an academy coach, she serves as a liaison between the school and the business community supporting the career academy model. The career academy approach is high school reform that attempts to create a more supportive and personalized learning environment through a school within a school structure or small learning community. The curriculum focuses on the combination of academic and occupation-related courses to promote high skill high wage opportunities for students. As an academy coach, she manages and maintains partnerships with local employers in Music City to promote awareness and on the job learning opportunities for high school students. Her work with the Academies of Nashville and partnerships within Music City offers students experiences with industry leaders such as The Recording Academy, Audio Engineering Society, and Warner Music Nashville and many others. Such partnerships provide internships, job shadows, and capstone experiences for the students in the north Nashville community.
She is a member of the North Chamber Leadership Team of the Nashville Chamber of Commerce where she supports the planning of annual events to build a positive brand image for the north Nashville community. She works closely with PENCIL, supplier of community resources to public education in Nashville. She is member of the Nashville Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and a volunteer with Boys Scouts of America Troop 621 of the Lake Providence Missionary Baptist Church.
As a mother and teacher, her work primarily focuses on teaching and nurturing young people. Her ability to provide exposure to students through new opportunities and experiences is what drives her work. Creating real world experiences for her students that promote and empower the next generation of leaders through employment, travel, and leadership is what motives her an educator. She is most proud of her ability to encourage young people to pursue their passions and dreams. Over the years, she has served a diverse population of students. Her education philosophy is, “change one life and you can change a generation.”
She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing from the University of Tennessee Knoxville, a Master of Arts in Teaching, and an Educational Specialist degree from Trevecca Nazarene University. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in education from Trevecca Nazarene University. She considers energizing smile and effective communication skills to be two of her most useful assets. Yolanda is a devoted mother to one fifteen year old son.