Keyla D. Jackson

Keyla Jackson worked in the Community Services Department at MassHousing for eight years. Her work focused on public safety and community engagement. Before MassHousing, she worked at Northeastern University, creating, developing, and planning outreach strategies for students and student organizations. Additionally, she worked with students on building leadership skills and cultivating a passion for affecting positive social change through workshops, trainings, and retreats. She oversaw and managed the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Graduate Fellowship program.

In her previous role at MassHousing, Keyla worked with law enforcement, city, and state agencies, community partners, and stakeholders to increase the capacity of housing and neighborhood residents to prevent crime and violence within their communities and to provide intervention and prevention services and resources. 

Through a strategic partnership with the Boston Police Department and community partners, she launched the Jamaica Plain Hub and COR model. At weekly Hub meetings, multiple service providers engage in a scheduled meeting to address situations involving individuals and families struggling with complex issues spanning multiple service disciplines, not necessarily connected to service, and facing immediate and compounding risks of an incident of harm.  Its purpose is to mitigate risk within 24-48 hours and connect individuals and families to services. Since then, the model has been replicated in three additional districts across Boston.

Keyla serves as the Deputy Director of Facilities Management for the Boston Public Schools. She is responsible for driving much of the long-term capital planning efforts under the umbrella of The Green New Deal, including new school construction and major school renovation projects. She manages all community engagement related to design studies, school mergers, and major renovations. Additionally, she oversees all aspects of capital construction projects within BPS, from capital budgeting through final project execution.

Keyla is currently consulting with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, John Jay College, and the Institute for Community Living in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, to develop a Hub situation table to work with individuals whose criminal cases are diverted and provide them with case management.

Keyla earned a B.S., an M.S., and an advanced graduate certificate from Northeastern University and is currently enrolled as a doctoral student in the Law and Policy program. She is the very proud mom of a college-age son and daughter.