Jackson: “Our everyday is a parent’s once in a lifetime”

Aurora grad guides new nurses, cares for tiniest of newborn babies

  • Karen (Bergen) Jackson (center) works as a NICU nurse and clinical educator at Children’s Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis. Pictured with Jackson, are her seven granddaughters whom she calls the light of her life. From left are: Zoe, Izzy, Adalynn, Sloane, Annalyse, Amellia and Abbigail.
    Karen (Bergen) Jackson (center) works as a NICU nurse and clinical educator at Children’s Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis. Pictured with Jackson, are her seven granddaughters whom she calls the light of her life. From left are: Zoe, Izzy, Adalynn, Sloane, Annalyse, Amellia and Abbigail.

    For nearly four decades, Karen (Bergen) Jackson has stood at the intersection of life’s most fragile beginnings and its most powerful moments, dedicating her career not only to caring for critically ill newborns but also to shaping the nurses who will carry that responsibility forward — blending compassion, innovation and hard-earned experience into a legacy that reaches far beyond the walls of th…