Jackie has been an astronomy enthusiast her whole life, starting with her father, a TWA pilot, showing her the night sky from their driveway in rural Overland Park. She joined the Astronomical Society of Kansas City in 1986, and then bought her first telescope to observe Halley’s Comet. She saw her first total eclipse of the sun in Hawaii in 1991.

The Astronomical Society of KC owns Powell Observatory, built in 1985 in Louisburg, Kansas, where the skies are darker than in the city. Jackie has been a team leader there for more than 30 years, having developed many of the programs for the public. She has given countless presentations there, and throughout the area, to schools, libraries, civic groups, etc.

In the late ’90s, she began leading tours all over the world to see total eclipses of the sun in locations like the USA, Greece, Aruba, Australia, Tahiti, China, Siberia, and La Serena, Chile, in South America in 2019. She has now witnessed 10 total eclipses and 2 annular eclipses.

Jackie is currently a board member of the Astronomical Society of Kansas City and previously served as president, vice president, and treasurer. She is the treasurer for Kansas Citizens For Science, a trustee of the Association of Lunar and Planetory Observers, and vice chair of the Missouri chapter of the International Dark Sky Association. She earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from Avila University.

She loves to spread the word about how awesome astronomy is!