TCNJ

29 SPRING 2022 Verlina Reynolds-Jackson '94 New Jersey General Assembly BILL CARDONI A "super-auntie," Verlina Reynolds-Jackson was early in her career as a social worker in her home city of Trenton when she temporarily became a foster parent to the children of relatives suffering from mental health challenges. "I was single one day and the single parent of four the next day," she says. "It was traumatic." One of the kids was being bullied and was afraid to make the short walk home from school. After school arrangements and other services were needed for all four. To top things off, Reynolds-Jackson's car broke down, and she found herself "with a 3-year-old on my hip, waiting for a bus, trying to make these calls." She was fortunate, she says, that she knew how to navigate bureaucracies, "but it kept gnawing at me" that not every parent in a similar situation would know who to call, let alone have the time to be persistent while trying to create a loving atmosphere. The lack of advocacy at the local level fueled her passion to be a public servant and in 2010 she was elected to Trenton's East Ward seat. Seven years later, she successfully ran for state assembly, taking the District 15 seat previously held by fellow TCNJ alumna and state senator Shirley K. Turner '64, whom she calls "a great mentor." "This was never in my plan. I was a social worker just trying to help people," Reynolds-Jackson says. Now, she views herself as a "connector to opportunity" between residents and government resources, aided by another TCNJ alum, her chief of staff, Ed Gittens '85. And from her office on West State Street, she says proudly, "I can see the back door of my mother's house. It reminds me every day to never forget," she says, "that to whom much is given, much is required."

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