Jackie deGroot is a nonresident fellow in the Baker Institute’s Center for Energy Studies concentrating on sustainability and a circular economy for plastics. Formerly a senior R&D fellow for Dow, she has over 30 years of industry experience in the design and application of novel polymers for industrial and consumer packaging, consumer health and hygiene and plastic pipe end markets. 

Her experience lies at the intersection of research, manufacturing, regulatory, and the full value chain where innovative ideas are refined and scaled to sustainable, commercial solutions that bring value growth to industry. Most recently she was responsible for leading a global organization in creating and implementing a strategy for resolving gaps in current packaging design to enable a circular economy for plastic packaging.

This work helped to technically ground Dow’s corporate ESG “Close the Loop” goal and inform investments in advancing circularity. deGroot has served on the executive steering teams of The Recycling Partnership’s film and flexibles coalition and the Nonwovens Institute at North Carolina State University, and was an invited SME at the 2021 Global OECD Forum on Designing with Sustainable Plastics. Her technical publications include over 25 US granted patents, two book chapters, and numerous
technical papers and conference presentations. 

In 2022 deGroot received the American Chemical Society’s Heroes of Chemistry Award for her leadership and individual contribution to the development and commercialization of unique polymers enabling up to 30% reduction in plastics and carbon emissions in packaging. deGroot holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Trinity University in San Antonio.