Jacquelyn Ollison, Ed.D. is an equity focused education expert whose work centers on improving teacher retention in high poverty schools by addressing educators’ compassion fatigue. She is a featured TEDx speaker on educator compassion fatigue and the author of Addressing Compassion Fatigue in Urban Schools: Strategies for Sowing Seeds of Resilience, published by Routledge. Her scholarship and public engagement are grounded in both research and lived experience.
Dr. Ollison understands the toll compassion fatigue takes on educators because she experienced it firsthand, ultimately leaving the classroom as a result. She currently serves as Director of the Center for Research on Expanding Educational Opportunity (CREEO) at UC Berkeley and instructs in the UC Merced Extension Teacher Preparation Program.
Beyond her professional endeavors, Dr. Ollison serves as a board member for Safe Black Space and the Torlakson Whole Child Institute and an advisor to Reaching At-Promise Students Association (RAPSA). She advocates for healing from racial trauma. She also promotes holistic community solutions to educational challenges.
Her personal journey involved a transition from classroom teaching due to compassion fatigue. This journey informs her advocacy for viewing educators as first responders deserving of support and reverence. Dr. Ollison’s insights on this topic have been shared on the TEDx stage with over 16,000 views. They have also resonated with a wide audience through her publications and keynote speeches.
She resides in Northern California with her husband, children, and dog, Séo. Her pronouns are she/her/hers.
Jacquelyn (Dr J) Ollison 