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Deborah Jackson is an acting deputy director at the NRC
Jackson’s team reviews designs for advanced reactor technologies. “It’s a totally new technical area for me and a great learning experience,” she says
 This April, Deborah Jackson took over as acting deputy director of the advanced reactor program in the office of new reactors of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). She’s enjoyed working with nuclear reactors and in government service almost since her career began, but she admits that the road hasn’t always been easy.
Jackson used to call herself a “double minority” as an African American woman in the field of materials and mechanical engineering. Today she’s intent on helping other minorities and women succeed in engineering careers, and says she’s “there for people” whenever they need advice or just a sympathetic listener.
Many societies
Jackson is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Association of Blacks in Energy and the American Nuclear Society. She’s also been a mentor/counselor for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) on campus at Howard University (Washington, DC) and mentors a variety of employees at the NRC.
“It’s good to share experiences with other people,” she says. “Sometimes minorities and women have different experiences than the majority. That was definitely the case for me early on, although it’s gotten a lot better. So now we bounce ideas on how to handle uncomfortable situations and also network for support.”
Senior exec
Last fall Jackson completed an executive development program leading to membership
in the Senior Executive Service (SES) of the federal government. After participants finish
the program they are assigned to new jobs working directly for SES members. When she completed the program Jackson moved into a temporary assignment assisting the NRC’s recruiter with outreach activities at Howard University until her current job opened up
this spring.
Advanced reactors
Jackson says the NRC is “the best place to work in the federal government.” The agency has been hiring more techies in the last five years to support new reactors now being built. There’s also more diversity in the workforce, Jackson says.
In the advanced reactor group, Jackson’s team of three direct reports reviews technologies for various types of advanced reactor designs. “It’s a totally new technical area for me and a great learning experience,” she says.
“Once you get into the SES you focus on overall managing as opposed to day-to-day technical work. I will miss that a little, but this will still be a good challenge.”
Role model for others
She decided to apply for SES after her father’s death in 2006. He had always wanted her to be a role model for others, and she decided it was time to impact other people’s careers rather than focusing on her technical expertise in materials engineering.
As a manager, Jackson says, “I try to be fair to everyone. I’m not a micromanager but I take time to talk to everyone regularly.
“Some managers only initiate discussions with staff as part of required performance appraisals.” In those cases, she believes, the staffer “must take the initiative and ask for time to meet with the supervisor and discuss performance and career goals.”
Growing up
Jackson grew up in Washington, DC, where she went to an all-girls Catholic high school. “The nuns were focused on getting us into nontraditional fields, not only teaching or nursing,” she says. She discovered engineering and took a special liking to ME because “It’s more versatile than other engineering fields.”
Jackson graduated from Howard University in 1981. In school she’d had a summer job with Stone and Webster Engineering Corp (Boston, MA), working with nuclear plants under construction in Virginia. After graduating she went to work for Stone and Webster in Boston as a systems engineer for the Beaver Valley Power Station Unit 2. In 1983 she moved to a job at Gilbert Commonwealth (Reading, PA), now Parsons Co, as a quality engineer.
Into the NRC
She joined the NRC in 1987 and has been there ever since, building experience in design, construction, operation and maintenance of nuclear power plants. Her last five years have been in first-line supervisory work providing oversight in various technical arenas.
She was considered a general engineer from 1987 to 1990. Then she was designated ME. In 1996 she moved to the office of nuclear regulatory research where she worked as a materials engineer until 2001. The next year brought some extra excitement in the form of a short-notice appointment to a temporary post as a branch chief.
Next she did a three-month assignment in the office of the executive director of operations as a technical assistant. Then she returned to the office of nuclear regulatory research where she worked as a senior materials engineer, section chief and branch chief. In 2007 she became branch chief in the office of nuclear materials safety and safeguards.
“Think about your career”
Soon afterward she was accepted into the SES candidate development program and spent the next year and a half in rotational assignments. Then came the Howard recruiting stint and now her current role as acting deputy division director of the NRC’s advanced reactor program in the office of new reactors.
An exciting career, ever learning, ever moving upward. Her advice to techies is to evaluate their progress frequently. “Think about your career, the goals you want to attain, and what you’ve done and plan to do to make them a reality. Identify mentors, some that think like you and some that don’t; get diverse thought processes,” Jackson says.
“If you make a mistake, it’s not the end of the world, but admit when things don’t go right. Always be up front, and maintain your integrity.”
D/C
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