Lawrence Jackson is currently the Director of Programs for STRIVE New York. He comes from the corporate sector with a background as a manager of mutual fund research for the Bank of New York.  Lawrence’s relationship with STRIVE began in 1987 as a job developer at East Harlem Employment Services Inc./STRIVE. His first promotion came in 1990 to the position of Manager of Job Development at STRIVE, where his duties were to train and supervise newly hired Job Developers.  Two years later, Lawrence was promoted to Site Director at STRIVE.  His responsibilities included overseeing placement and training activities.  In addition, he managed placement activity of the STRIVE Employment Group (SEG), a consortium of 9 agencies in New York City that have a STRIVE component. In 1998, Lawrence, having begun the gradual handover of SEG management, took on the role of Manager of Summer Youth Programs, facilitating the successful achievement of program goals for SYEP and RYA contracts with the city.

 In the year 2000, Lawrence was promoted to Director of the Career Path department.  His goal was to increase the participation in Career Path as well as the hard skill training niches. As a result, Lawrence successfully increased participation by 48% and added new skill niches such as Brownfields Environmental Training, Cisco Academy and partnerships that offered participants Commercial Drivers License (CDL) training, Medical Encoding, Cable Installation programming and a scholarship program with Grace Institute. 

Lawrence Jackson has provided technical assistance in the areas of job development and placement with many of STRIVE’s national affiliates as well as non-affiliates in New York City, such as the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) BEST program and the East Harlem Partnership for Change Hospitality Program.

Lawrence was born and raised in New York City where he attended Empire State College and completed the American Bank Institute certificate program. Lawrence is a proud father of three children, Shannon, Tobias and Lawrence Jackson Jr.