Nancy Jackson

Nancy Jackson, MSW, CTF

Profile

Drawing on 21 years as a certified facilitator and extensive experience as a nonprofit executive director and founder, Nancy Jackson created Gammy Bird Consulting to share her skill in helping groups, organizations, and professionals in transition with strategic thinking, implementation planning, establishing foundational values and goals, and creating behavior and systems change.

Employment History

• CEO, Facilitator – Gammy Bird Consulting
• Executive Director – New England Network for Child, Youth and Family Services 
• Vice President – United Way of Central Massachusetts
• Adjunct Professor – Suffolk University

Competency Areas

• Executive and Organizational Transition

Organizational preparation for an executive transition, search and hire, and new executive onboarding and coaching; organizational strategic integrations (program to full organizational merger), and organization change, interventions and transition planning.

• Meeting Design and Facilitation

Design and facilitate large and small group meetings, retreats and planning sessions. Design processes that guide groups in planning and project execution, including curriculum and agendas. 

• Organizational Strategy

Strategy development, policy development, organization assessment, and strategic planning.

• Training Development and Delivery

Leadership Development programs. Technology of Participation (ToP) Facilitation Methods, Strategic Planning, and Implementation. Sustainability Planning, Long-term Leader retirement planning.

• Project Management

Facilitator and trainer for collaborative action planning and implementation projects.  Large scale collaborations involving multiple stakeholders.

• Stakeholder Engagement

Community outreach, public participation and policy development.

Education

• Master’s Degree in Social Work – Boston College Graduate School of Social Work    
• Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology– Colorado College

Professional Affiliations and Associations

• ToP Network
• Dublin Community Center Board of Directors

Professional Certification and Awards

• Mentor Trainer – ToP Network
• Certified ToP Facilitator –  Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA)
• DiSC Workstyles Assessment facilitator

Training Offering

• Sustainability: Building and Maintaining a Thriving Nonprofit
• Effective Meetings
• Managing People with Difficult Behaviors

Publications

• Nancy Jackson and Pam Garza, “Intermediary Executives”, AED, 2004
• Nancy Jackson, Lenore Olsen, Carol Schafer, William Holmes, “Evaluating the Treatment of Emotionally Disturbed Adolescents”, Social Work Journal, May-June, 1986
• “Labor Force Attachment Patterns of Working Women:  Factors Affecting Employment Continuity After Childbirth.” primary author, Karen Wolk Feinstein, 1984

Project List

• Executive Transitions: Over the past decade, guided 35 transitions in nonprofits seeking and securing a new leader. Prepared the organizations for the transition, conducted the search and hire, and onboarded the new executive.
• Executive Leadership: Twenty years as Executive Director of a nonprofit association whose purpose is to build the capacity of children and youth-serving organizations by bringing to them best practices, research findings, and professional development opportunities
• Systems Change: Built a coalition of a broad spectrum of community stakeholders interested in improving employment opportunities for youth in Worcester, MA. We co-created a plan for engaging employers and the City to increase youth employment, resulting in an established City Office on Youth, 500 new jobs for young people, and an ongoing network of nonprofit youth employment providers.
• State Planning: Developed a state plan for children’s protective services in Connecticut; engaged stakeholders and created a plan for foster children in a Colorado county
• State Systems Assessment: Assessed needs of children in the CT foster care system
• State Systems Coordination: Over two years, brought together leaders of nine MA state departments to coordinate community engagement, needs analysis, and planning
• Retreat Facilitation: Hold a four-day intensive retreat for long-term and founding nonprofit leaders who are in the process of retiring. Follow-up and coach the 10 cohorts of participants; facilitate the monthly learning sessions of Leadership Worcester
• Mergers: Coordinated the services across five medical societies, leading to a merger. Assisted with the merger or strategic affiliation of a dozen nonprofit agencies.
• Affiliation planning: Through the Boston Foundation’s Catalyst Fund initiative, assisted four nonprofits pairs with program integration including an adoption program, civic rights advocacy initiatives, child care programs, and a girl’s youth development initiative.
• Health planning: Implemented a plan for the launch of health system’s Patient Center Medical Home model in Oregon
• Community Assessments: Facilitated components of the public health MAPP planning in Boston, MA and Lincoln, NE; conducted community asset mapping for youth mentorship in a NH school district.
• Organizational Assessments: Conducted internal and external assessments for small-medium nonprofits, completing approximately 5-6 annually.
• Strategic and short-term Planning: With nonprofit organizations, coalitions, universities, and networks nationally, e.g. a plan for a VT state university in leadership transition; a strategic plan for a small NH nonprofit in the food movement; a private health practice integrating transgender care into their services
• Community Coalition Planning and Development: Build coalitions in each of the six New England states with the purpose of advocating for runaway and homeless youth and training youth service professionals
• Change Management: Assisted policy, program and staffing enhancement in a juvenile justice facility in CT
• Training: Train 100 people annually in ToP Facilitation Methods and Youth as Facilitative Leaders
• International Training and Consultation: In Johannesburg, South Africa, trained 30 young professionals in ICA’s ToP Facilitation and Participatory Strategic Planning methods, provided strategic analysis, community connections and planning with a new nonprofit, and coached new staff in nonprofit start-up and management. Trained six English faculty in Adult Learning methods and Youth as Resources in San Luis, Mexico

Client List