JackieJACKIE R BURNS, PHD (Gig’em 2004)
Round Rock Campus
4400 College Park Drive
Round Rock, TX 78665
[email protected]
P: 512.223.0445
Office: 8316.04

Areas of Study: Inequality, Human Rights, Globalization, Social Enterprise and Building Community Capacity

“What a long strange trip it’s been” (Grateful Dead 1977).

If you are reading this then you have successfully found your way to the discipline of Sociology at Austin Community College! My academic career started at the community college after successfully not completing high school. In 2015, I was inducted into Oklahoma City Community College’s Hall of Fame for my work with blighted urban communities and marginalized individuals.

My professional academic interest began with Native American Law and produced a PBS special series on Indian Territory leading up to Oklahoma Statehood. My emphasis shifted to global development where I worked with World Bank data and colleagues to identify pressing issues facing communities confronted with global development: food security, maternal and child nutrition, access to health care, and displacement of indigenous tribes. Both areas converged into my current emphasis of community development here in the United States. I founded a grocery co-op in a historic blighted urban area in Southern Illinois in an attempt to improve access to healthy affordable foods. My work with Washington University – St Louis and the Skandalaris Center created an ongoing social enterprise initiative with the City of Alton Il aimed at revitalizing local economies through thriving small businesses with a social mission. I have been active with ethnographic research and featured in podcasts that discuss the imperative of vibrant domestic economies and the restoration of communities one neighborhood at a time (All Town USA). I served as department chair for seven years in a dual discipline Sociology and Anthropology undergraduate program, and six years in assessment and accreditation at the institutional level with the Higher Learning Commission. I also served as director of a 17-year longitudinal quality assurance program monitoring quality care provided by the Oklahoma Department of Human Services community-based services for persons with developmental disabilities. Lastly, I served as an EEOC employment analyst for the State of Oklahoma Employment Securities Commission.

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Mary Oliver

I will make every attempt to help you achieve your goals.