A resident of Lawrence, KS since 1968, Jackie has worked for the Department of Defense, both state side and overseas, in Software Engineering and Simulation Software Development. In addition, she also enjoyed working as a community volunteer, serving on Boards which provide young people with unique opportunities in the performing arts. These include The Hidden Valley Girl Scout Camp; the Friends of Hidden Valley; the Lawrence Children’s Choir; the Lawrence Chamber Orchestra; the Friends of the Lied Center, The Lied Center Performance Fund Board of Governors and now, the Mid-America Performing Arts Alliance (MAPAA).

Why support MAPAA? Meeting Petr Novak in 1972 in Prague, Czechoslovakia deeply and profoundly affected Jackie’s life and led to a lifelong desire to provide the means for artists to be heard. Petr was a young singer who approached three young female American students on Spring Break in the U.S.S.R. and asked if he could sing for them. Since the 1968 Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia, he had been banned from performing. He invited these young students, including Jackie, to his home where he performed for 3 hours. When Jackie returned from break to school in Bordeaux, France, she checked Petr's claims that he had been "as popular as the Beatles." Jackie’s local record store had a large, deep bin of his many popular records. His albums continue to sell today, 26 years after his death.