Debi Jackson

Background

About Debi Jackson

Debi spent 20+ years of her career in communications and marketing for Fortune 500 companies, international non-profits, and professional sports teams. Undoubtedly the most important job of her life: supporting her transgender child in living a full, proud, and authentic life. She has devoted herself to educating others about transgender issues, ensuring equal rights for all of the LGBTQ community through political organizing and advocacy, and supporting other families with transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming kids. Debi has trained schools across the US on creating trans-inclusive policies and how to best support students through their transitions. In 2016, she was awarded the National Education Association's LGBTQ Caucus Role Model Award for her contributions to education about the LGBTQ+ community. For the last two years, she worked as a lead consultant for the NEA in updating their training programs for their 3 million members. Debi has combined her communications background with her passion for activism through her work on strategic messaging on policy and legislative issues in roles with Equality Texas and HRC, through providing media training for LGBTQ organization staff and families during contentious legislative sessions, and by managing the Trans Families support program of Gender Diversity. Debi tells her story to encourage allyship for other transgender children and their families around the world. To this end, she has been interviewed by media across the US, the UK, France, Greece, Russia, Ukraine, South Africa, Colombia and Brazil. She is a founding member of the Human Rights Campaign’s Parents for Transgender Equality Council, has been a consultant on an Emmy Award winning ACLU documentary about transgender children, and her family is featured in the feature-length documentary “Transhood” available on HBO Max. Debi's child, Avery (now 15) has also told their own story in a children’s book, “It’s Okay to Sparkle” and was featured on a cover of the January 2017 “Gender Revolution” issue of National Geographic magazine at the age of 9.