Sylvia Jackson of Newark has been a community leader for the University Heights Project neighborhood as Founder and President of the University Heights Community Council, she oversaw the transformation of the neighborhood. She has transformed the area into a neighborhood that provides affordable housing, minority business development, job opportunities and the improvement of neighborhood schools. She also sits on many boards and committees that have helped pave the way for 66 new units of affordable housing being built called the Upper University Heights Estates, the transformation of a new condominium association and the design of the new science park high school

Honored with namesake street in Newark Sylvia Jackson, daughter of the late Rufus and Nancy Jackson, passed away peacefully at University Hospital on Dec. 30, 2016. In November 2016, Sylvia, a longtime community leader, was presented by the City of Newark with the naming of a street (at Warren and Wilsey) in her honor.