Faculty Bio

Jettie Townsend is well acquainted with many of the highs and lows one might encounter while pursuing the lifestyle of a non-traditional student. He began his professional career in 1987, as a Realtor for Merrill Lynch Realty and then with Great Western Real Estate. After four productive and profitable years of learning to accept rejection as an invitation rather than a signal of defeat, through cold calling and canvassing neighborhoods, he gradually transitioned to law enforcement and jurisprudence. Widowed, with a 5-year-old daughter, he worked full-time as a Department of Defense Contractor during the day, and attended Antelope Valley College during the evening and summer sessions. After receiving an Associate of Arts degree in Letters, Art, and Sciences, he began attending the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) where he obtained dual Bachelor's degrees, one in Black Studies and the other in Law and Society. During this time, he volunteered at a prison facility and eventually became a full-time employee. After graduating from UCSB, Jettie took a much needed respite from studying and worked at a middle school where he tutored up to 40 children, most of whom were economically disadvantaged, learning disabled or spoke English as their second language. He then attended law school, clerking part-time in the Santa Barbara County Law Library, and working briefly for the County Probation Department, and graduated with his juris doctor in 2008, just in time to see his now 22-year-old daughter commence her collegiate journey at the University of California at Davis. For the past 3 years, he has worked as CEO for Development, Achievement, Education and Leadership, Inc. (D.E.A.L.), a non-profit corporation whose primary goal is to assist prison inmates as they reenter and transition into mainstream society. He also serves on the board of directors for Haven of Trust, a non-profit corporation dedicated to assisting socio-economically disadvantaged children and their families. Having worked with both children and adults, Jettie has fostered a keen passion to assist all who earnestly desire to learn and thereby remain ahead of the pack, in the increasingly competitive worlds of education and employment. He is an ardent proponent of the Six Sigma philosophy and has been heard often saying, "If it is worth doing at all, then it is worth doing right - the first time."