The deans from the University of Oklahoma’s Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education and Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts - Ed Kelley, Stacy Reeder and Mary Margaret Holt, respectively - recognized a shared need among their students for additional support. That’s where Deborah Binkley Jackson comes in.
A licensed counselor in the state of Oklahoma, Binkley Jackson now serves this trio of colleges as a student advocate. Binkley Jackson’s main role is to be an additional support system for students as they navigate higher education.
Faculty and staff can make a referral if they recognize a student might need extra support, then it is up to the students to contact Binkley Jackson if they would like to meet with her. Binkley Jackson mentioned that some students may be seeing other clinicians, and her role is not to circumvent or undermine them but rather to work alongside them to aid the students.
Binkley Jackson is no stranger to roles that focus on student support. Prior to moving into her current role, she worked for OU’s Project Threshold for more than 22 years. Before starting with OU, Binkley Jackson worked for a number of years with youth and adults for agencies who contracted with the Department of Human Services for home and community-based services.
“I’ve made it very clear that this is a position that we all have to support each other in order to support students,” Binkley Jackson explained. “I've often said that really nothing changes except the zip code. We all have challenges that have come about through certain situations in our lives. Students don't just stop being who they are, or not have what they brought with them just because they come to the University of Oklahoma.”
Binkley Jackson is a two-time OU alumna, earning an undergraduate degree in law enforcement administration and a master’s in human relations. Currently, she is a student in the adult and higher education doctoral program, where her primary research interests are focused on Black women and their migration through higher education.
If any Gaylord alumni are interested in being involved with the college’s support efforts, Binkley Jackson encouraged them to consider becoming a mentor. Anyone who is interested can contact her at dbjackson@ou.edu.
“Those who are willing to serve as mentors, we need you,” she said. “This is a team effort, and as I’ve said, we all have to circle the wagons on this and help each of our students to be healthy as they move through this process of getting a higher education degree.”