Profiles of Leadership Director Barbara Jackson Growing up in rural up-state New York, Barb learned independence and self-reliance quickly. Her parents divorced when she was one-year old, and separated from her brothers, she moved in with an aunt for three years where she learned how important faith and spiritual belief is when the going gets tough. She eventually lived with her father, a skilled craftsman, and step-mother and learned the pride and accomplishment that comes from a job well-done. She has fond memories of working with him on job sites when she was only 6 and 7 years old. To this day she appreciates the opportunity she had to watch, learn, and listen as her Dad built amazing custom doors and cabinets. The smell of fresh cut lumber is still one of the sweetest connections to her childhood. After several years, her father fell upon hard economic times, and the family lost its income and their home. By the fifth grade, the family was living in a car and Barb often spent the night in the local laundromat to stay warm at night. During these trying years, school became a true sanctuary for Barb. She knew that education would be her path to success and a way out of her situation. On the last day of the sixth grade at age 12, Barb moved to Rochester NY to live with her mother and step-father. In the early 1970’s, her parents decided to move to Windsor, Colorado to work for Eastman Kodak. Barb was a junior in high school. She had worked hard to earn a NY State Regents diploma and didn’t want to give that up. She petitioned the School Board and requested to take the senior level Regents exams at the end of her junior year. Surprisingly, they granted her request. Barb managed to hire tutors and studied over the summer. She passed all of her senior exams and received her Regents Diploma just as the family headed west in 1972. This would be the first of many “petitions” that Barb would serve to accomplish a self-determined career path. Convinced that education was the key to opportunity, Jackson attended Colorado State University where she searched for a major that would satisfy her love of math and art. Starting first as an Art major, she quickly learned that although she had a great appreciation for the arts, she didn’t have the talent to become an artist. After one quarter, she switched to Interior Design but determined that this career path would leave her trying to improve upon what others had already designed and built. By the third quarter of her freshman year, she found a major that would involve both her creative and technical talents, the now defunct program called Housing and Design. This major combined aspects of urban planning, real estate, and housing policy, with courses in technical drafting and architectural design. In addition, she was required to take two courses through the Industrial Construction Management program (known as Construction Management today). Trying to design buildings when you don’t understand how they are built did not make sense to her, so she submitted a proposal to the Deans and Department Heads of both programs, asking to create a customized course of study in Housing and Design and Industrial Construction Management. Included in the proposal was an internship for credit with Carl Nelson, who at the time,
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was one of Fort Collin’s premier custom homebuilders. Her proposal was accepted, which resulted in one of the first “unofficial” Interdisciplinary Studies pilot program at CSU. The customized program increased the number of construction management courses to complement her education in real estate, planning, and architectural design. It was in one of her CM courses that she first heard the term engineer-procureconstruct (EPC). This same concept would eventually be known as design-build project delivery and become the impetus for Barb’s success throughout her career. Jackson’s first job out of college was with the Tucson Design and Development Center, Tucson, AZ. There she created project budgets for architects who often designed projects that their clients couldn’t afford to build. Jackson gained additional experience working at an engineering firm in Longmont, CO. where she learned how important infrastructure was to the development process. Now married and about to deliver her first child, she and her husband Wayne followed opportunities in Arizona and Virginia where she worked for a homebuilder and then a commercial contractor. She honed her skills in estimating and project management over the next several years but witnessed the finger-pointing between the clients, designers and contractors during the construction process. True to form, when Jackson started her company in 1984 it was a customized blend of design and construction under one roof. As President of Design-Build Services, Inc., her projects included single family residential, real estate development and light commercial. However, still frustrated by the segregated approach to projects and development that most companies took, she realized that the only way she could ever truly influence the industry toward integrated solutions would be through the formal education process of those entering the industry. In 1996, when her son was a freshman in college and her daughter still in high school, Jackson returned to Colorado State University for a Master’s Degree in Construction Management, and a PhD in Education to teach design-build at the university level. As one of a hand-full of women in the US with over 20 years’ experience in construction and a PhD, she was recruited by several universities. With an offer she couldn’t refuse from Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, CA., Barb accepted and spent 15 years as a tenured, full professor, director, and head of the Construction Management Department. While there she developed the first design-build curriculum in the country and worked with the Design-Build Institute of America to create a certification for Professional Design-Builders, which she herself proudly displays. Although she has had a great influence on the design and build side of the real estate equation, Jackson saw that the power was on the business side of the process. So in early 2013 when she saw an ad for Director of the Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management, Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver she got “goose bumps.” Two things jumped to mind. First she envisioned an educational program that could truly connect all aspects and parties associated with creating integrated solutions for people and communities and secondly, she could return to Colorado where her heart has always felt at home. On August 1, 2013 Barb Jackson became the new Director of the Burns School. She believes that her entire life and career has prepared her for this position. She vows that under her leadership, the Burns School will be everything it’s always been…and much, much more!