Porche Jackson doesn’t just show up for work every day. She is thinking about her day and how she can help the people she encounters long before the day begins.

In January, Jackson was named the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Texas state programs manager.

“People. They are the reason I do what I do,” she says. “I love to help. There is just something in me and I wake up thinking about it. How can I make this easier for them? How can I help them understand this in a different way?

“You have to have a passion and meet people where they are and inspire them to want to reach the next level of conservation on their property,” she adds. “Our job is about improving the environment and we have to approach that a different way with different people. If you don’t have the passion to care – a potential customer will walk out the door and I’m not okay with that.”

Porche Jackson, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Texas state programs manager, appreciates all types of wildlife, something she credits to her mother and fellow conservationist Yolonda Jackson. (Photo by NRCS)

Jackson comes by her conservation passion honestly: both of her parents are NRCS career conservationists. Her mother, Yolanda Jackson, serves as a program specialist in Mississippi for easements, and her stepdad (aka Dad) Walter Jackson, an agronomist, is a management and program analyst that audits ecological sciences policy for Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC), serving out of Fort Worth.

Starting early

Jackson grew up on a Mississippi farm, playing in the mud and raising livestock.

“I grew up outside – playing on haybales at the barn and walking barefoot everywhere,” Jackson says.

“I remember going in my grandma’s house and she would say, ‘You kids smell like ‘outside.’ And we did! That’s where we spent all our time. It was awesome. We weren’t distracted by technology – we smelled the soil, we felt the breeze on our faces, the sunshine on our clothes, and we loved it all. The barn yard was our happy place.”

That “happy place” was also home to several 4-H projects Jackson raised over the years. She enjoyed competing at local and state competitions.

Making a difference

Three of Jackson's six siblings work for USDA.

“We all fell in love with USDA and NRCS,” Jackson says. “We traveled as a family to events and interreacted as a family. Our dinner time conversations where about NRCS. NRCS has been such a close part of our family for as long as I can remember.”

Jackson started her career with the USDA’s NRCS when she was 14 years old, spending her summers as an Earth Team Volunteer. She worked her way through high school and college through the NRCS Pathways Program.

Her wildlife biologist mother made an early impact on her life, both in terms of awareness and respect for wildlife and natural resources.

“We had pet snakes and bearded dragons and all kinds of things in the house when we were growing up,” she remembers. “Nothing creeps me out. I respect it all – snakes, spiders, all kinds of critters and animals. They all play a role in the environment, and I admire that about each species.”

Her agronomist father, also played a big role, helping her evaluate decisions she made with her animals, how she managed the pastures they were grazing and more.

“I’ve never even thought of NRCS as work,” she says, smiling. “I have been talking all things NRCS around our dinner table since I was little. It’s truly just a part of who I am.

More than a job

Jackson earned a degree in agronomy and a minor in pest management from the University of Arkansas. After graduation, she gained her first fulltime job with NRCS as a soil conservationist in Hattiesburg, Miss., in 2007.

“I chose to work for NRCS because in this role I get to work directly with the farmers,” she says. “They are my heart and my passion. They are the people I deal with every day and through them we can make differences on the land. I love meeting people where they are, and then working with them to see things in a new way and make positive changes.

"When I first started full time with NRCS I would go out with farmers and ranchers for hours and hours, and I would just learn so much,” Jackson says. “Those farmers would teach me things no school course could teach me. I learned things from them that I will carry with me my entire life.”

For Jackson, her work is more than just a job.

“It's more than going to work to get a check,” she emphasizes. “You have to understand the farmer’s goal and help them get from Point A to Point B. That is one of the most rewarding things I do, and I hear back from my customers all the time.

"When I go to the store and I run into one of the farmers I worked with and they tell me things like, ‘I did what you suggested for my soil testing and I saved so much on my fertilizer expenses.’ or ’I executed the conservation plan we talked about and my yields have really improved’ or ‘When I changed the timing and duration of their grazing, my goats are doing so much better and I’m not having to deworm them as much’ – you just can’t forget that.”

Jackson credits her effectiveness with relating to producers to her agriculture background.

“I have raised animals and crops on a farm and so that affects my thoughts about outcomes,” she explains. “It puts me in what I call a ‘preventative’ mindset and I can work to help people avoid things before they become a problem. I have personal experiences to talk them through their options."

Purpose with passion

For the past several years, Jackson has been serving as a multi-county resource team leader for NRCS in Hattiesburg, where she lives with her husband, Jeremy Jackson, a former broiler supervisor at Sanderson Farms, and their two girls, London, 10, and Ireland, 5.

Porche Jackson, center, and her daughters Ireland, 5, and London, 10. (Photo by Jeremy Jackson)

The opportunity to help people on an even bigger scale presented itself and Jackson accepted the position on the NRCS Texas State Programs Staff in Temple. Her will primarily focus on helping lead the agency’s Regional Conservation and Partnership Program (RCPP) among other duties. She began in the position January 2, 2022, working from Mississippi but hopes to be in the state office in person by June.

“One of our goals is to increase Historically Underserved participants in the program, and that’s something I have always worked to increase,” she says. “I like to use plain language to reach them and then love seeing that lightbulb moment when they realize how our programs can help them.”

Jackson's sister, Kenyatta Scott, will also be joining the Texas State Programs team, focusing on Conservation Innovation Grants.

“We are excited to do all we can as a team, and serve the state of Texas,” Jackson says.

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