Dr. Jackson Bacon Honored as Xavier University of Louisiana   Alumnus of the Year During Homecoming 2018 

New Orleans LA - Dr. Gloria Jackson Bacon ’58, who has made a career out of caring for the health and welfare of those less fortunate, was honored as the Xavier University of Louisiana 2018 Alumnus of the Year. 

 She was presented the Victor H. Labat Alumnus of the Year award during the annual Homecoming Banquet, which drew an sell-out crowd of alumni and friends. During the event, class agents for the 14 special five-year reunion classes (1938, 1943, 1948, 1953, 1958, 1963, 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008, and 2013) presented the University with gifts totaling $276,992.

 A native New Orleanian, Jackson Bacon earned her medical degree from the University of Illinois in 1962. Although she had not intended to stay in Chicago for an extended period of time, the inner-city patients she saw reminded her of the people she knew growing up in Louisiana. 

In 1968, Jackson Bacon was fired from a publicly supported medical on Chicago's South Side for making her views on the need to improve the meager care provided there known. In response, she opened her own clinic, a not-for-profit agency offering total health care and serving as the primary medical resource for area. The center was funded out of her personal savings and Medicaid reimbursement until 1991, when it began to receive federal funding. In 2001, she retired as medical director of the clinic. 

Jackson Bacon has been an active over the years, assisting assisted the National Alumni Association and serving as a class agent during her class’ reunion years. She is mentor, philanthropist and proud Xavierite.