Dion Jackson wears many hats, both at the Center and in other professional capacities.  As project manager for the Center, she coordinates most projects and supervises its student workers.  She serves as the administrator of external communications and provides technical assistance and information to Center clients.  Her work includes researching eco-industrial parks as a tool for economic development, and using Business Improvement Districts in Southern California.  She also researched the welfare-to-work and working poor populations of the five-county Los Angeles Basin for the Center’s 1999 Long Beach conference, the Los Angeles Basin Economic Development Initiative.

In addition to her work for the Center, Dion is a consultant in planning and development.  She currently works with the Gateway Cities Partnership, Inc. as Real Estate Recycling Project Manager where she is facilitating the redevelopment of under-utilized industrial land within the 27 cities south and east of Los Angeles known as the Gateway Cities.  Other recent projects include: siting of Primary Centers, schools for kindergarten through second graders, for the Los Angeles Unified School District; and preparing a manual for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on transferring ownership of Metal Finishing Businesses in California, which involves the risk of potentially contaminated land.

Dion has eleven years of experience in management consulting and is currently pursuing Master's degrees in both Urban Planning and Business Administration at USC.  Her emphasis is in Economic Development and Finance.  Dion received her Bachelor of Science degree in Genetics from the University of California at Davis, and her Master of Real Estate Development from the University of Southern California.