Veterans Day Program - "To Honor, Educate and Commemorate"

Tom Jackson has served as executive director of the Georgia World War I Centennial Commission since 2015.  His appointment came with his position as Heritage Communications Executive within the chancellor’s office at the University System of Georgia, a position from which he retired at the end of 2017. 

Prior to joining the central University System office, Tom spent 27 years in the senior administration of UGA, the last nine of those years as Vice President for Public Affairs.  He was responsible for institutional public relations strategies and served as UGA’s institutional spokesperson.  His national leadership in the field includes service on the executive committee of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities Council on Strategic Communications.

Tom previously was a news reporter for WXIA-TV, the NBC affiliate in Atlanta, serving eight years as Athens Bureau Chief.  He was a correspondent for the Atlanta Constitution; and served as general manager, news director and program director of radio stations in Athens and LaGrange, where he received the state Associated Press Pacemaker Award three times.

Tom has been elected to four terms representing North Georgia in the General Conference of the United Methodist Church, the denomination's worldwide governing body.  He is an active lay member of Athens First United Methodist Church, for which he has served as a delegate to the North Georgia Annual Conference for more than 30 years. 

Despite these accomplishments, he might best be recognized as the “Voice of the Redcoats” – since 1974 he has been stadium public address announcer for the University of Georgia Redcoat Band.

Tom holds an associate's degree in history from Oxford College of Emory University, and three UGA degrees:  a bachelor's in history, a master's in public administration, and a Ph.D. in higher education administration.  He and his wife, Sherry, live in Oconee County and have two grown sons and five grandchildren.