Maggie Jackson, former regional community engagement and health planning director for the health department who has ties to Kingfisher, has been promoted to regional administrative director.

Jackson’s husband Nick Jackson is a Kingfisher graduate whose family owns and operates car dealerships in Kingfisher and Enid.

Jackson became a familiar face in Kingfisher County during the pandemic, helping coordinate COVID-19 vaccination and testing and speaking to local civic groups about the disease.

Now she serves as administrative director for the state health department’s recently reorganized District 2, which includes Blaine, Canadian, Garfield, Grant, Kingfi sher, Logan, Major and Alfalfa counties.

A Houston native and Stillwater High School graduate, Jackson expected to be headed to medical school after graduating from Oklahoma State University with a degree in biochemistry.

Instead, she developed a passion for community health after a year-long post-graduate missionary experience in Thailand where she helped train local health workers, she said.

“I came back from Thailand and got my master’s degree in public administration from OU,” she said.

Jackson started her health department career as a health educator, but then her position was eliminated due to cost-cutting and she was laid off.

She later returned to the health department in a different capacity when a position opened up in Enid, where she currently lives with her husband and daughters, Blythe, 7, and Margot, 5.

As a community engagement director, Jackson found herself responsible for helping guide the county health departments in her region – and the residents of those counties – through the trials of the pandemic.

In her new position as district administrative director, Jackson hopes to use the lessons learned during the pandemic to make the health department even more effective.

“My hope is that we continue to use the partnerships we developed and those we strengthened dealing with COVID to accomplish other public health goals,” she said.

Jackson also wants to get the word out about the services the health department offers and strengthen access to care for those who might be struggling.

The health department also is building out mobile health care to rural communities.

“Right now we have two vans, a trailer and two nurses dedicated to mobile care and they stay really busy,” she said.

Relationships also are being built with the Cheyenne- Arapaho Tribes, she said.