Jackson is a native of Sheridan, Wyoming, who earned a bachelor’s degree in art education from Hastings College and a master’s degree in business administration from Florida Institute of Technology.

 

Prior to entering the Foreign Service, Jackson worked in Saigon, Vietnam, as a civil service employee at the Defense Attaché Office. She later served 10 years as an active duty U.S. Army officer, primarily in Germany and South Korea, before joining the reserves and retiring as a colonel.

 

She joined the Foreign Service in 1985.

 

Her previous overseas assignments have included serving as vice consul at the U.S. Consulate in Zurich, Switzerland; general services officer in Lagos, Nigeria; chief of the consular section at the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; personnel officer at the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong at the time of its reversion to Chinese control; and supervisory general services officer in Nairobi, Kenya, following the terrorist bombing of the U.S. embassy.

 

In 2001, Jackson became the first senior U.S. diplomat to serve in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. After the invasion of Iraq, Jackson took the position of management counselor during the establishment of a U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

 

At the State Department, Jackson has served in the bureaus of African, European and Near Eastern Affairs. 

 

In 2006, President George W. Bush appointed Jackson as U.S. ambassador to Burkina Faso.  

 

Prior to her nomination as ambassador to Malawi, Jackson served as the management coordinator for the establishment of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, beginning in 2009.

 

Her husband, Mark, is a retired Foreign Service Officer. They served together in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.

 

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