Morgan Holt Jackson, Ph.D., (M.S.’22, Ph.D.’25) works as a senior data analyst for MARKETview Education Partners. Her work alongside her company’s collegiate partners has an unlikely origin: mosquito-borne diseases. 

Jackson’s dissertation, “Investigating the Temperature Effects on Aedes Aegypti and Dengue Virus in Central Argentina: Perspectives from Mathematical Modeling,” required her to analyze data and literature to tell a larger story of how temperature changes contribute to the emergence and spread of disease in new areas.

Her ability to combine her background in mathematics and statistical analysis with the ability to determine the wider narrative has allowed her to now work with colleges and universities to positively impact students.

What inspired you to pursue a graduate degree? What drew you to VCU to do so?

VCU was incredibly interdisciplinary, with many faculty doing various projects in applied mathematics. My undergraduate institution did not have an applied mathematics degree. I attended a conference and saw the vast field that applied math was, and I sought to learn more about it. Additionally, VCU had the most welcoming department that I looked at. The department was collaborative, and people were willing to help and engage you, which was incredibly important to me.

Was there a faculty member that made a particular impact on your education and/or career journey? How so?

This may feel like a non-specific answer but having so many accomplished women in the department was inspiring. At my undergraduate institution, there were no women faculty in the mathematics department. It is so important to have representation that you can look up to and aspire to be like. Having such a diverse department was incredibly important to me and set me on a path of inspiring other women and girls to be excited about math and feel like they are capable.

Tell me about your current role at MARKETview Education Partners. What does your day-to-day look like?

Day-to-day, I split my time between the specific analytical questions of our college partners and higher-level market questions. I am looking into things like: "Which colleges are seeing enrollment success, and how do they differ from those who are struggling?", "How does a school compare to other schools like them in these specific metrics?", and "How can we best predict things like application volume given a school's historical data?"

How did the curriculum in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics prepare you for your professional work? 

My graduate degree taught me to think critically and seek deeper answers. In the higher education space, it is easy to simply give the data to answer the question that was asked, but digging into the why is critical. The interdisciplinary nature of the program also gave me a vast breadth of knowledge to pull from when particularly challenging problems arise.

What’s your why?

Education is incredibly important, and it is vital to maintaining a functioning, ethical society. As a teaching assistant in the classroom at VCU, I could inspire my students to think deeply and analytically about what goes on around them. Now, in my job, my company is devoted to making higher education the most accessible it can be.