Our Bright Future, an organization whose mission is to empower youth and develop bright leaders through robotics, sports training, and guidance in academics, bestowed their Pathway Award to Debora Jackson, Dean and Harry Stoddard Endowed Professor and Rosanna Garcia, Beswick Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at their 2nd Annual Our Bright Future Gala at Polar Park in Worcester.
As a non-profit leader, Dr. Jackson served as Director of Operations of All Girls Allowed; Director of Lifelong Learning at Yale Divinity School; Executive Director of the Ministers Council of the American Baptist Churches, USA, and Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church in Needham, MA.
Dr. Jackson received her Doctorate in Ministry and Master of Divinity degree, both with honors, from Andover Newton Theological School. She holds a Master of Engineering degree in Manufacturing Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Management from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business from Indiana University.
Dr. Garcia, who holds a Ph.D. in marketing from the Eli Broad Graduate School of Business at Michigan State University, was previously the Walter Koch Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship at the University of Denver. She held associate professor positions at North Carolina State University and Northeastern University.
Dr. Garcia is a noted authority on entrepreneurism, innovation, and consumer behavior, with numerous publications in highly-ranked peer-reviewed journals. She is the author of the textbook Creating & Marketing New Products and Services. Moreover, she co-founded Vijilent Inc., a data science company that serves the legal industry.
Our Bright Future's mission is to empower youth and develop bright leaders through robotics, 3D printing, sports training, and guidance in academics. We incorporate core values such as education, empowerment, discipline, leadership, diversity, and respect into our daily programs to help students shape futures into bright ones.