Yvonne Jackson
Educator
and Administrator
Yvonne Jackson, Cherokee,
PhD, RD, is Director of the Office of American Indian,
Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian Programs in the
US Administration on Aging. Her office
provides funds to tribal senior centers so that the
tribes can provide nutrition and supportive services to
Elders. “Our goal is to keep Elders in their homes and
out of nursing homes,” she says. “We work to keep them
active and engaged with their families and communities
as long as possible.” Jackson enjoys her job, “Elders
are fun to work with,” she says.
The services that Jackson’s office funds include,
congregate meals, transportation services, home-delivered
meals, home supportive services, support for caregivers,
and nutrition screening and education. If Elders have
complex nutritional problems, they are referred to
registered dietitians. Jackson issues the grants to the
tribes, interprets policies and provides training to senior
center staff members on such issues as stress management,
caregiver skills, and cost-effective ways of improving
health. Because over half of the Elders in some communities
have diabetes, some training that Jackson provides focuses
on planning meals that will help prevent diabetes as well
as other common problems, such as hypertension.
Jackson is less than thrilled with all the paperwork that
she needs to do, but teaching lifts her spirits. She has
many stories about the rewards of her work, such as the
Elder who told her that the food and social interaction at
the senior center program had kept her husband alive longer
than had been anticipated. The Elder told Jackson, “A week
before my husband died of cancer, he saw that they were
going to serve ham and yams at the senior center, so he got
himself to the center and had ham and yams.”
Journey
When Jackson
was in high school and told her guidance counselor that she
wanted to go to college, he said, “Your family can’t afford
to send you to college.” Jackson didn’t let this stop her:
“I’m a stubborn person and decided if I want to go to
college, I’m going to go to college. I think this happens a
lot to minorities. You aren’t encouraged by the system.”
Jackson’s mother had died, but her father was supportive.
She went to the University of Wyoming where she completed
her undergraduate degree in dietetics. Then she earned her
master’s degree in human nutrition and food science at the
University of North Carolina. “I enjoyed research and my
major professor encouraged me to get my PhD. I was tired,
though of being poor. I decided to work a bit, so I took a
teaching job at the University of Southwestern Louisiana
and found that I really liked working with people. After
that I went to the University of Tennessee where I got my
PhD in socio-cultural food science.”
After completing her doctoral degree, Jackson was as a
nutrition specialist at the Alabama Cooperative Extension
service. Next for five years she served as a teacher of
teachers in her high-level position as Chief of the
Nutrition and Dietetics Training Program for the Indian
Health Service in Santa Fe, New Mexico. During the
following six years she was Chief of the Nutrition and
Dietetics Section at IHS headquarters in Rockville,
Maryland. This led to her present position.
Advice
“If you like
working with people and want to make a difference in the
lives of individuals and communities, dietetics and
nutrition is a wonderful field. If you’re uncertain about
whether or not you want to be a dietitian, volunteer at
senior centers, find seniors to work with. If you think you
might want to work with children, volunteer at Head Start
or the Boys and Girls Clubs. Look for opportunities within
your community to work with programs and see if there’s
something to which you’d like to devote your professional
career.”
This
article was originally published in the Summer, 2009
issue of
Winds of Change. (The cover
artist is William Rabbit, Cherokee.)