Staff

Ms. Jackson has over 32 years of local government management experience. She served as City Manager for the City of San Bruno in the San Francisco Bay Area for 15 years and the City of Fort Bragg in the coastal Mendocino County for four years. She also served for more than a decade in the Office of the City Manager in the City of Hercules, California, which was at the time one of the fastest growing communities in the state, where she held the positions of Assistant City Manager, Parks and Recreation Director, and manager for the City’s Budget, Redevelopment, and Economic Development functions. Ms. Jackson has extensive experience developing and implementing successful fiscal, organizational, and operational strategies to resolve serious financial deficit situations, including the sharing of core municipal services with other local agencies, restructuring of service delivery systems, and development of public engagement strategies and programs.

Throughout her career, Ms. Jackson established agreements and worked with public- and private-sector partners to ensure community interests in the completion of major development and redevelopment projects, including acquisition of prime ocean bluffs property for public open space, planning for redevelopment of a 400-acre oceanfront property following closure of a lumber mill, development of a new train station, redevelopment of a regional mall and a former navy base, and establishment of a multiple-agency regional groundwater storage and recovery program.

As Director of Emergency Services for the City of San Bruno, California, Ms. Jackson led the City’s acclaimed response to the devastating 2010 PG&E high-pressure gas pipeline explosion and resulting fire that killed eight residents and destroyed 38 homes. That response included negotiation of a $70 million community restitution fund and establishment of the San Bruno Community Foundation to administer the funds for the long-term benefit of the community. Over the course of several years following the explosion, Ms. Jackson and her team developed and successfully pursued advocacy for pipeline safety and utility regulation improvements that ultimately resulted in major legislative, regulatory, and operational reform at the state and national levels.

Ms. Jackson is a member of the International City/County Management Association. She was recognized by the League of California Cities City Manager’s Department as the 2012 City Manager of Distinction. She has presented before a wide variety of audiences on the City of San Bruno experience and pipeline safety. Ms. Jackson holds a bachelor of arts degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, where she also completed coursework for a master’s degree in Business Administration.