Meet Our Team

A native Memphian, Charia Jackson, joined LISC Memphis as its Housing Program Officer, where she is responsible for managing its current housing initiatives–Home Repair Programs. She comes to the company as a seasoned local community development leader with more than 18 years of experience working with residents and stakeholders of the Frayser (Memphis) neighborhood to address its housing problems through affordable housing development and housing-related programming.

Prior to LISC, she served as the Deputy Director for the Frayser Community Development Corporation where she was responsible for planning and executing the agency’s housing programs and initiatives. Her key accomplishments during her time at the CDC were designing and implementing its HUD-certified Housing Counseling Program, which helped more than 10,000 Memphis/Shelby County residents achieve homeownership goals or preserve homeownership.

Charia has served on a few different boards. She served on the board of Building (BLDG) Memphis, a local coalition of CDCs and individuals seeking to improve the quality of Memphis’ different communities through policy, advocacy, and capacity building; Community Lift, a supporter of the local community and economic activity through the city; and Tennessee Housing Development Agency Housing Education Initiative Advisory Board, the state’s housing finance agency. Most currently she is serving as a board member of Frayser Community Schools; and the newly formed Fair Housing Council of Metropolitan Memphis.

She earned both a Master of City and Regional Planning and a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing Management from the University of Memphis­ and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Urban Affairs at the University of Memphis. She is passionate about studying urban neighborhood development and applied concepts for achieving thriving communities.