Jackie Dugard was Chairperson of SERI's Board of Directors from June 2015 to January 2018. Jackie co-founded SERI in January 2010 and was Executive Director of the organisation till December 2012. Prior to founding SERI, Jackie was a senior researcher at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg between 2004 and 2009. She previously sat on SERI's Board of Directors and was an Honorary Senior Researcher.
Jackie is currently an associate professor at the University of the Witwatersrand. In February 2014 she established the university's new Gender Equity Office (formerly called the Sexual Harassment Office). In August 2014 she was appointed as its Director.
Jackie’s areas of expertise are socio-economic rights, socio-legal studies and access to basic services and justice for the poor. Jackie has a BA (Hons) in African Politics and an LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand; an MPhil in the Sociology and Politics of Development and a PhD in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge; and an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex.