About

To elevate the potential of New York’s underserved by providing a statewide system of quality, tuition-free academic and workforce development programs that impart skills, enhance college and job prospects, and improve lives and communities.

Quality education has the power to change lives. But for many, choices and circumstances put the education and training they need beyond reach.

At SUNY UCAWD, we create access to opportunity by giving New York State the programs that help eliminate barriers to education. In communities, we are a source of skills, a gateway to better jobs, and a positive influence on people’s lives. Behind the scenes, we champion issues and channel resources to the centers and staff who empower students. Across the state, we are an economic engine, making a lasting difference through the many lives we touch.

We stand behind the potential of all New Yorkers to pursue their dreams. And we’re committed to making opportunity a reality and putting more people on their path to upward mobility.

We proudly serve asylum seekers, refugees and others recently arriving in the United States, the justice-involved, and members of all communities facing socioeconomic challenges!

Our institutions are built on partnerships. On the statewide and local levels, we are proud to deliver tuition-free programs and services with many agencies and organizations, including:

• SUNY Educational Opportunity Program; Summer Youth Employment Program; Hunger Solutions New York;
• New York City Employment and Training Coalition;
• New York State Department of Transportation;
• New York State Department of Labor;
• Empire State Development;
• Reentry organizations;
• Public housing authorities;
• Labor unions;
• Healthcare systems; and
• Library systems across the state.

Associate Provost and Director – Lisa Jackson, MS

Lisa L. Jackson currently serves as the Associate Provost and Director of the State University of New York (SUNY) University Center for Academic and Workforce Development (UCAWD). As Associate Provost, Ms. Jackson oversees a $72M statewide system of Educational Opportunity Centers and the Advanced Technology Training and Information Networking (ATTAIN Project). Over the past 23 years at SUNY UCAWD, Ms. Jackson has worked to bring opportunity and access to New York State residents who find themselves outside the traditional education and training pipeline.

Ms. Jackson holds a master’s degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University at Albany and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Bowie State University.  She began her professional career as a Rehabilitation Counselor working with adults and children affected by substance abuse at the Whitney M. Young Health Center in Albany New York.  She subsequently worked as Program Director at the Homer Perkins Center, a long-term residential drug treatment center, as Project Coordinator for the Women and Violence Coordinating Center at Policy Research Associates (PRA) in Delmar, New York and as the Facility Director for the Arbor Hill Community Center, Inc.  

She has been recognized by the NYS Assembly with a Leadership in Education Award in 2020, the Champion Award from the Schenectady CCOC in 2019 and with an Ambassador Award from the Queens EOC in 2018.  She says “whether it was working in the food pantry at Arbor Hill Community Center, administering acupuncture for detoxification at Whitney M. Young, working on a national research project that would inform best practices at PRA or picking apples with children in the afterschool program, these collective experiences cemented my passion for developing communities by impacting one life at a time”  

Lisa, a well-traveled “Air Force brat” currently resides in Albany, New York. She is a 38-year member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and enjoys spending time traveling and spending time with her daughter (Amber) and “grand-cat” (Blanche).