The DJ Gatsby Show with Author Jacki Edwards 12/30/18

Jacki Edwards was born on the beautiful island of Jamaica, in a small town call Savanna-La-Mar located in the parish of Westmoreland. She is the “wash belly” as Jamaicans would say, if you are the last child born in the family, for Albert and Hazel Edwards.  She migrated to Mount Vernon, New York in 1983 along with five of her siblings to join her three other siblings and her parents in the “Big Apple”. She attended Nichol’s Junior High and later graduated from Mount Vernon High in 1987.

Jacki continued to advance her studies on the academic ladder from an associate degree in hospitality management to a bachelor’s degree in business management while she worked in the service industry. Her first job was a reservation agent while living in Miami, FL. After about two years she moved back to New York and worked as a front desk clerk and later was promoted to guest service manager and then to operations manager. As Jacki faced turmoil in her second marriage, she decided on a new career path that would ensure career stability and financial security for herself and her children.  She turned to nursing and obtained an Associate of Science degree and later went on to pursuing a Master’s degree in Nursing Leadership and Management. Today, Jacki is a board-certified family nurse practitioner, who is in pursuit of the highest degree that can be awarded in nursing, Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP).

Jacki has always been able to see challenges as mere opportunities and setbacks as a catapult towards greater achievements from early in her childhood. It was this character trait that stood her in good stead as she navigated the murky water of two marriages which ended in divorce. She faced the realities of her pain in pursuit of peace. Despite her unfortunate circumstances and seemingly contradictory avowals, she still believes in the dignity of love and marriage.