She's making Hippocrates proud; Scripps researcher becomes role model for all, not just minorities

San Diego Business Journal, Oct 17, 1994 by Bradley J. Fikes

Janis Jackson has no problem with being a role model.

A researcher at The Scripps Research Institute, Jackson knows she's a rarity: a female, African-American doctor-turned-academic who is studying cancer. And she's trying to make her story a little less rare.

"I was lucky to have educated parents, parents who could provide me with opportunities," Jackson says. "I think the few of us who have those advantages have a responsibility to try to be a role model for other students or to do anything we can to help."

Jackson, 40, has also built a growing reputation at Scripps as a creative scientist. An assistant member in the Department of Immunology who also holds a medical degree, she helped pinpoint a mechanism by which cigarette smoke causes lung cancer. And she's applying for a grant from Johnson & Johnson to continue work revealing how mutant proteins turn normal cells cancerous.

But the point of her work isn't to win kudos as a researcher, Jackson says. Instead, she hopes the research might lead to drugs that stop the cancer process and save lives.

Because she also wants others to follow in her footsteps, each summer Jackson takes part in the Scripps Institute's Minority Summer Research Apprenticeship Program. The program gives high school students their first taste of the challenges and satisfaction of research.

"I don't consider it a burden, I consider it a privilege," Jackson says. "It enhances my life. To live just for yourself is a very narrow life."

The daughter of a minister in a middle-class Denver family, Jackson says her family taught her she has an obligation to help those less fortunate. She not only embraces those values wholeheartedly, she loves to inspire others to do likewise.

If a lab colleague needs extra assistance, Jackson is always eager to help out, says her mentor, Charles Cochrane, a Department of Immunology member.

"It just comes naturally to her," Cochrane says. "She just automatically sees the problems other people face and spends her time solving the problems. Never, however, does she jeopardize her own work. She always goes full tilt ahead."

Cochrane's wife, Monica, a Scripps research assistant, says Jackson has helped her with professional and personal matters.

"I'm lucky to be able to call her a friend," she says.

That willingness to help also extends to outside the lab. Jackson helps feed the homeless at the St. Vincent De Paul homeless shelter, assists a food cooperative and recently began work for Habitat for Humanity.

So far, her activities don't include her own family: Jackson remains single.

But don't get the idea Jackson's a self-denying ascetic; she enjoys her life.

"If you're doing what you like, then sharing tends to make things better, not a burden," she says.

A pattern begins to emerge: Jackson doesn't see much of a distinction between what most people call work and play. She does what interests her.

"I basically enjoy just about everything," Jackson says, adding that, in addition to work, everything includes movies, dancing, plays and sports.

Colleagues and friends vouch for her varied interests.

"She's very knowledgeable on many different subjects outside of her work," says Cochrane. "She's familiar with international politics to a fine detail, she knows the statistics of the Denver Broncos. ... She's just an amazing individual."

Jackson's also no pushover when it comes to standing up for her rights. As a black woman, Jackson says, she has repeatedly encountered discrimination, and confronts it head on.

While in medical school, Jackson once visited a Denver nightclub with her sister and friends. Other patrons were allowed to enter with minimal scrutiny. But when Jackson's party tried to enter, the guards suddenly demanded they show Colorado identification.

Jackson stood outside the club, informing patrons that they needed in-state identification. One patron, admitted with Texas identification: Jackson found that interesting, because her sister had been denied entrance despite also displaying a Texas ID card.

Jackson then talked with the manager.

"Of course, the manager said he had no idea anything like this was going on," she says, indicating her disbelief.

The manager did apologize, invited the group in, and offered free drinks. Jackson and her friends declined. And she reported the club to the local Better Business Bureau.

"The next time we went back, it was closed," Jackson says. "I don't know, but I like to think my complaint had something to do with it."

Jackson says she's encountered many similar instances of racial prejudice, including some in San Diego. Her response is always to resist.

"It's illegal and unfair, and I'm not standing up just for myself, but for many others," Jackson says. "People died to give me these opportunities."

Minister And Scientist

Like her commitment to racial equality, Jackson traces her interest in health care to her experiences as a little girl who accompanied her minister father as he visited members of the congregation.

He tended to their spirits, but Jackson saw something else: Some of them were ill and poor. Jackson wondered why these people couldn't get adequate medical care.