Jean Jacoby is an Associate Dean in the College of Science and Engineering at Seattle University. She received a B.S. in Water Resources Management from the University of Wisconsin and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering-Environmental Engineering and Science from the University of Washington.

From 1986-1991, she worked at several civil and environmental engineering consulting firms where she managed studies of toxic pollution in urban bays of Puget Sound, watershed and water quality investigations, and lake restoration projects.

In 1991, she was appointed the Clare Boothe Luce Professor of Environmental Engineering at Seattle University. She was named the first Thomas J. Bannan Chair in Engineering at Seattle University in 1996.