About Professor Jerlando F. L. Jackson
Jerlando F. L. Jackson is the ninth Dean of the Michigan State University (MSU) College of Education, MSU Research Foundation Professor of Education, and Director and Chief Research Scientist of the Organizational Disparities Laboratory (ODL).
Internationally recognized for his pioneering work on organizational disparities, Dean Jackson has redefined how systemic inequities in higher education and the workplace are studied and addressed. Dr. Jackson’s research portfolio centers on the concept of fairness as a framework to understand and disrupt disparities in hiring, retention, and advancement, particularly for historically marginalized populations in STEM. His scholarship, which integrates organizational justice theory, intersectionality, and critical quantitative methods, has informed more than nine National Science Foundation–funded interventions. He is credited with producing 75% of all U.S.-based research on Black professionals in computing from 2008 to 2020.
For over 30 consecutive years, MSU has been ranked a top public College of Education with academic programs in education, health, and well-being. MSU College of Education has four programs ranked #1 in the nation, ten in the top-10 (U.S. News & World Report), and is ranked #11 in kinesiology (National Academy of Kinesiology).
As Dean, Dr. Jackson has steered MSU’s College of Education into a new era of interdisciplinary innovation, notably through initiatives like Advancing Education with Science, focusing on virtual learning, AI integration in classrooms, and extended reality (VR/AR/XR) teaching technologies with the vision of building the intelligent classrooms of the future. He also established InformED and ExplorED, which are signature engagement programs that foster dialogue and learning across the MSU community.
Prior to joining Michigan State University in 2022, Dean Jackson held both the Rupple-Bascom Professor of Education and Vilas Distinguished Professor of Higher Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also served as chair of the Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis department and the director and chief research scientist of Wisconsin’s Equity and Inclusion Laboratory (Wei LAB).
Dean Jackson is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (2024) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2021). He is consistently recognized as one of the 200 most influential education scholars by Education Week’s Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings.
He earned his Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from Iowa State University, an M.Ed. in Higher Education from Auburn University, and a B.M.Ed. in Music Education from The University of Southern Mississippi.