At the 2026 Back-to-School Student Success Summit, Doris Jackson-Shazier stood at the podium to close out the “Flying Towards Success” theme with a session called “Facing Turbulence.” It was a fitting title. Her own story is proof of what it looks like to fly through turbulence and land somewhere stronger than where you started.
Where It Started
Doris Jackson-Shazier graduated in 2002 with a Take Stock in Children scholarship, though her path to that stage in 2026 was not a straight line.
Doris became a mother at 19, a first-generation college student navigating early motherhood while working to build a career. It is the kind of story she wrote about in her memoir, “Raising Justice,” which explores resilience, faith, and what it took to raise a daughter to college graduation while climbing the corporate ladder herself, a story of turbulence long before she ever used that word on a Take Stock in Children stage.
From Scholar to Leader
Today, Doris Jackson-Shazier is a Certified Leadership Coach, Management Consultant, and Keynote Speaker based in Greater Orlando. Her mission is to help mid-career professionals build high-accountability, high-morale environments, at work and at home, giving leaders the confidence and strategy to lead effectively and build teams that thrive.
It is not a coincidence that a Take Stock in Children scholar grew into someone who now teaches others how to lead. The mentorship that shaped her early adulthood became the blueprint for the work she does now.
Paying It Forward
Doris has not just built a career, she has spent the last seven years mentoring students directly through her local Take Stock in Children program in Lake County.
“I currently serve as a leadership coach and organization consultant, where I partner with organizations to help them build great leaders,” Doris says. “I am so grateful for the work that I get to do today, because it all started when someone invested in me.”
That investment, a Take Stock in Children scholarship and a mentor who believed in her before she believed in herself, is the thread running through everything she has built since.
That is what brought her to the Back-to-School Student Success Summit this year, not as a scholar in the audience, but as a mentor and outstanding alumna standing at the podium, showing an entire network of mentors and local program staff what their investment can grow into.
Full Circle
Doris’s message to the Take Stock in Children network was simple and direct: Believe in someone before they learn to believe in themselves.
“Go to your local Take Stock in Children chapter, sign up to be a mentor,” Doris says. “Go ahead and invest in someone who may not even be thinking about investing in themselves.”
It is the same investment someone once made in her. Twenty-four years later, she is still paying it forward, one mentee, one keynote, one leadership lesson at a time.
Learn more about Doris Jackson-Shazier at dorisjacksonshazier.com or connect with her on LinkedIn.
Interested in becoming a Take Stock in Children mentor like Doris?
Reach out to your local Take Stock in Children program to learn how to get involved, or visit takestockinchildren.org/mentor-application to apply.