Phillip Jacksonhas dedicated his life to providing opportunities for and improving the life quality of others.  Mr. Jackson is a living demonstration of what is possible with hard work, perseverance and dedication to a cause.

During his career, Mr. Jackson has been Vice President and Director of Operations for one of Chicago’s oldest and largest chain of booksellers; President of EF/MS, a family–run business; Assistant Budget Director for the City of Chicago; Chief of Staff for Chicago Public Schools; Chief Executive Officer for the Chicago Housing Authority; Chief for Education for the City of Chicago; CEO for Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago.  He is founder and current Executive Director of The Black★Star Project, which is designed to help children and students realize their educational and life potential.

Some of The Black★Star Projects signature initiatives include the national annual Million Father March that organizes about 1 million fathers in more than 600 cities to take their children to school on the first school day; Saturday University—a system of free community-based learning centers designed to remediate and augment K-12 students’ skills in reading, writing and math with the support of parents, communities, and an army of volunteers; Fathers’ Club hosts free educational, recreational and special cultural events to facilitate father-child bonding; Student Motivation and Mentoring Program, designed to motivate youths to succeed in life, has facilitated interactive whole-classroom sessions with more than 375,000 students in 260 Chicago-area schools; Destination College helps prepare 7th– through 12th-grade students for college success;  a host of Parent Engagement Initiatives—from Parent University to Black Parents United and more—support parents to become the first, best and most important teachers for their children.  

Mr. Jackson has received national attention for his work to eliminate the racial academic achievement gap.  Recently, he was honored as an Education Champion of Change for America by The White House, Champion of Social Justice by the Chicago African Americans in Philanthropy, Citizen of the Year by Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Monarch Man of the Year in Education by Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Reclaim Our Youth Honoree by Operation Push, Education Man of the Year for the Bud Billiken Parade, Illinois Educator of the Year for the 7th Congressional District of Illinois and the Ricky Birdsong Father of the Year Award for the State of Illinois by the Illinois Fatherhood Initiative,  He was also named as one of the Chicago Defender’s “50 Men of Excellence” and he received the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Community Empowerment Award.

 Mr. Jackson earned a bachelors degree in philosophy from Roosevelt University in Chicago. He has dedicated his life to educating Black, Latino, and poor urban children in the United States and he continues to take on larger and more challenging projects with a commitment to making the world a better place.  Phillip Jackson remains an exemplary model of leadership for countless numbers of people and is a true “servant of the people.”