Clay Jackson Elected Skyland Trail Board Chair
ATLANTA – Skyland Trail, a nationally recognized nonprofit psychiatric treatment organization, is pleased to announce Clay Jackson as the new Chair of the Board of Directors.
Clay Jackson, CFA, is president of ZWJ Investment Counsel. He received an MBA from Emory University after graduating from the University of Virginia. In addition to Skyland Trail, he serves on the board of the College Foundation at the University of Virginia. He is an emeritus trustee and past board chair of The Lovett School and a member of the Board of Advisors of The Atlanta Speech School. He lives in midtown with his wife, Jane. They have two children, Audrey and Clayton.
Jackson has served Skyland Trail in a board capacity for more than 13 years; he joined the Advisory Board in 2006 and the Board of Directors in 2008. During this time, he has served as Chair of the finance committee and has been a member of the executive, governance, and development committees.
Jackson has supported Benefits of Laughter, Skyland Trail’s signature annual fundraising event, for many years. Clay and Jane Jackson chaired the event in 2017.
In 2016, Jackson was a member of the capital campaign committee for the Changing Minds Campaign that exceeded an $18 million goal to develop the Rollins Campus, which is now the home of Skyland Trail’s residential mental health treatment program for college-age young adults struggling with mood, thought, and anxiety disorders.
Jackson also played a leadership role in the 2018 Building Resilience, Changing Lives Campaign, serving on the volunteer campaign committee that surpassed a $20 million goal to fund the development of a new adolescent campus and treatment program for teens ages 14 to 17 with mood and anxiety disorders. The adolescent campus is scheduled to open in fall 2019.
“Clay Jackson is an incredibly committed and savvy leader who, for more than a decade, has volunteered his time and skills to help advance our mission and meet the needs of individuals with mental illness and their families,” Skyland Trail president and CEO Beth Finnerty remarks. “I look forward to working with Clay as we open our new adolescent campus and treatment program for teens this fall and start a new chapter in the growing narrative of Skyland Trail’s impact on the Atlanta community and the field of mental health.”
Clay Jackson succeeds Richard Parker, who served as Skyland Trail Board Chair from 2016 through 2018. Parker served in a board capacity at Skyland Trail for more than 20 years and concluded his board service in 2018.
To recognize Parker’s leadership, Skyland Trail will plant the first tree in the Chairman’s Forest in his honor, a gold rush dawn redwood tree.
“Richard Parker has made phenomenal contributions to the Skyland Trail community over the past 20 years,” says Finnerty. “He is a true believer in the importance of whole person health and integrated treatment and has invested his time and leadership in helping us expand programming in this area that will undoubtedly save lives. We thank Richard for his wisdom and generosity.”