
Dr. Jackson was a native of Philadelphia. She was a graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont and earned a Ph.D. in developmental psychology at the University of Washington. After receiving her doctorate, she taught at the university in the College of Education and the in the parent and child nursing program.
She later taught educational psychology at the University of Iowa. Upon her retirement she was appointed professor emerita. Dr. Jackson was the co-author of Routes to Reading Success and Failure: Toward an Integrated Cognitive Psychology of Atypical Reading (Psychology Press, 2001).


