Zelma Maine-Jackson

Maine-Jackson was raised by her grandmother in the Gullah-Geechee Nation in South Carolina until the age of seven when she moved to the U.S. Army Base in Heilbronn, Germany with her parents.{{Cite web|title=Women in Conservation|url=https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/south-carolina/stories-in-south-carolina/women-in-conservation/|access-date=2020-06-15|website=The Nature Conservancy|language=en-US}} She was inspired to study geology by her grandmother, a mid-wife, who taught her as a child that red clay was used to treat iron-deficiency in women. Her science based education and fluency in the German language paved the way for her later acceptance in an integration program. Partnered companies (ARCO, Shell, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil) would pay for the participants' undergraduate education and in the summers the students would work in oil fields or uranium exploration sites. She earned her bachelor's degree from Virginia State University and her master's degree in economic geology from University of Washington.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=The National Academies Board on Earth Sciences and Resources, 2020 Membership Biographies|url=https://www.nationalacademies.org/documents/link/web?IdcService=GET_FILE&dLinkID=LD82E70AD0D40E10474F5E78C71213982773CDA6D651&item=fFileGUID:D4402ECB977C0AFA73C0B19147A230597C03FAA39184&scsOriginalFileName=BESR%20Board%20Member%20Bios.pdf|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=}} While working on her master's degree, Maine-Jackson found herself working at Mount Baker, only 300 miles north of Mount St. Helens when it erupted in 1980.

Before Maine-Jackson established her career in geology, she undertook an assignment as a wellsite geologist at a petroleum drilling rig in New Mexico.{{Cite web |title=Zelma Maine Jackson — a quarter-century of keeping tabs on Hanford |url=https://ecology.wa.gov/blog/january-2021/zelma-maine-jackson-a-quarter-century-of-keeping |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240619102822/https://ecology.wa.gov/blog/january-2021/zelma-maine-jackson-a-quarter-century-of-keeping |archive-date=2024-06-19 |access-date=2025-02-05 |website=ecology.wa.gov |language=en}} Maine-Jackson then started her career as an exploration geologist specializing in uranium mining in the Rockies for the Atlantic Richfield Oil Company.{{Cite web|last=Hunter|first=Dana|title=Black History Month: Making History in the Geosciences|url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/rosetta-stones/black-history-month-making-history-in-the-geosciences/|access-date=2020-06-15|website=Scientific American Blog Network|language=en}} In the 1980s, she worked on drill rigs, including at the Hanford Site, where she studied the flow of groundwater toward storage sites of radioactive hazardous waste and analyzed the core samples that were drilled out.{{Cite web|date=2015-08-01|title=Daughters of Hanford: A Black Woman Geologist Digs Into Hanford Soil|url=https://www.nwpb.org/2015/08/01/daughters-of-hanford-a-black-woman-geologist-digs-into-hanford-soil/|access-date=2020-06-15|website=Northwest Public Broadcasting|language=en-US}} She has worked for the Washington Department of Ecology Nuclear Waste Program on decontaminating the Hanford Site for over twenty years. Maine-Jackson currently serves on the Board of Earth Sciences and Resources for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Division on Earth and Life Studies.{{Cite book|title= Assuring Data Quality at U.S. Geological Survey Laboratories|

last=National Academies of Sciences|first=Engineering|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK552836/|chapter=Board On Earth Sciences And Resources|isbn=978-0-309-49562-2|date=2019-10-21|publisher=National Academies Press (US)|language=en}}

Maine-Jackson is a trustee at The Nature Conservancy in South Carolina, where she works to protect loggerhead sea turtles and wildlife in the ACE Basin. She served on the State of Washington African American Affairs Commission during four governors,{{Cite web|title=Locke appoints to African American Affairs Commission and various state boards and commissions|url=https://digitalarchives.wa.gov/governorlocke/press/press-view.asp?pressRelease=326&newsType=1|date=1999-01-29|access-date=2020-06-16|website=State of Washington Digital Archives, Governor Gary Locke}} as chairperson of the City of Kennewick Diversity Commission,{{Cite web|date=2017-08-11|title=Kennewick's new Diversity Commission tackles complex issue|url=https://www.tricitiesbusinessnews.com/2017/08/diversity-commission/|access-date=2020-06-16|website=Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business|language=en-US}} as a two-term appointee to the Washington State Community Economic Revitalization Board, and an advisory member to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. She is a founding member of the National Association of Black Geoscientists.{{Cite web|title=Sponsor Information {{!}} National Association for Black Geoscientists |url=https://www.grantforward.com/sponsor/detail/national-association-for-black-geoscientists-8912|access-date=2020-06-16|website=GrantForward}} She has also served as an advocate for communities damaged by the environmental impacts of nuclear waste.

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Category:Living people

Category:American women scientists

Category:21st-century African-American scientists

Category:American geologists

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:21st-century African-American academics

Category:21st-century American academics

Category:21st-century African-American women