Valerie Jackson is an experienced professional in urban development and economic revitalization. Valerie has a proven track record in managing projects worth over $1 billion as the former Director of Economic Development for the City of Plainfield. With expertise in strategy and transit-oriented development, she has made significant contributions to urban growth.Valerie Jackson has extensive corporate and public sector planning and development experience, including strategy, planning, economic development, revitalization of cities, transit-oriented development, project and construction management, and financial analysis. She has achieved significant results in urban development, transit-oriented development, and economic development using arts, culture and healthcare as economic drivers.

Valerie is the former Director of Economic Development for the City of Plainfield where she managed a private investment portfolio of projects equating to more than $1B and growing. Under Valerie’s leadership, construction continues booming in the City of Plainfield. She retired from government to focus on her real estate development and consulting company, Equities Development Group.

At the City of East Orange Valerie was the Director of Policy, Planning and Development and under her leadership, she increased the city’s private investment in five years to a billion dollars translating into 5,000 new market rate residential units and 200,000 square feet of retail. She was the general manager of the $7.5M renovation of the East Orange Golf Club located in prestigious Short Hills, NJ. The renovation of the East Orange Golf Course was highlighted in the New York Times.

Valerie has a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from UCLA, with an emphasis in finance and marketing, and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Pomona College. Valerie was a recipient of the Walker Legacy Award for Economic Development, recipient of the 2022 Gateway Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Director of the Year Award, selectively invited to participate in the Community Leadership Institute at Harvard University and was featured on the cover of the New Jersey League of Municipalities Magazine twice, for Development for the City of Orange and the Master Plan process for the City of East Orange, New Jersey Chamber of Commerce Magazine for green development, and American Planning Association Publications. Valerie’s speaking engagements include the NAIOP, New Jersey League of Municipalities Conference, New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, New Jersey Future Redevelopment Forum, New Jersey American Planning Association, New Jersey Urban Mayors Association’s Economic Development and New Jersey Transportation Conference.