Dr. Sebrena Jackson, associate professor in the School of Social Work, has been named the recipient of the Lahoma Adams Buford Endowed Peace Award for 2025.
The Buford Peace Award is a prestigious universitywide honor presented annually by the School of Social Work during its award ceremony at the end of each academic year. This honor is bestowed on a faculty member who demonstrates exceptional levels of involvement in mediating human disputes, helping overcome prejudice, promoting justice and establishing peace through their teaching, research, professional practice and personal life.
Nominated for her commitment and dedication to supporting transition-age foster youth, Jackson exemplifies the essence of this prestigious award through her impact by giving students across Alabama the opportunity to access higher education and pursue careers in social work.
Jackson founded the National Social Work Enrichment Program in 2008, a pre-college initiative designed to help foster youth graduate high school, pursue higher education and explore social work as a career. NSEP has helped hundreds of students achieve a higher education future through summer programs on college campuses, life-skills training and mentorship opportunities.
Jackson’s leadership in this program has led to NSEP receiving sustained funding from the Alabama Transportation Institute and the Alabama Department of Human Resources, as well as overall continuous growth for the program.
Now in its 17th year, NSEP has served as a crucial pipeline to college for transition-age foster youth across Alabama, and many of them have now gone on to enroll in universities throughout the state. Jackson also continues to lead this program with the overarching vision of continuously improving the educational outcomes of youth while collecting data about pre-college-program foster youth.
Outside of NSEP, Jackson has served as a licensed clinical social worker in Alabama and Georgia, where she has practiced crisis intervention, child welfare, medical social work and community organizing. She has also been awarded Social Worker of the Year in both states, first by NASW-GA in 2009 and then by NASW-AL in 2017.
Jackson’s passion for education came from her experience as a first-generation college student. Along with her role as the founder of NSEP, she has also served as the Title IV-E coordinator/instructor of a Bachelor of Social Work Program at an HBCU, Master of Social Work Program Director, director of field education and associate dean.
Jackson’s dedication to empowering foster youth within our communities and expanding their access to higher education exemplifies the values of peace and advocacy that define the Buford Peace Award.