Jessie Hill Roberson earned the BS in nuclear engineering in 1981. While earning her degree, she served as a student engineer for Westinghouse at the Clinch River Breeder Reactor in Oak Ridge and the Nuclear Center in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. She worked for E. I. Dupont from 1982 to 1987 in nuclear reactor operations and as a system engineering specialist with Georgia Power Company from 1987 to 1989. She joined the Department of Energy and has held numerous technical and managerial positions at DOE’s Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site and the Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina, including environmental cleanup, waste management, safeguards and security, as well as nuclear reactors and weapons.
Roberson was nominated for membership on the Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board in September 1999 by President Bill Clinton. She was confirmed by the US Senate in January 2000. After a short departure from the board, Roberson was nominated as vice chairman of the board by President Barack Obama and confirmed.
In 1996 she received the Black Engineer of the Year Award for her formulation of a cost-effective plan for a $20 billion restoration project at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Plant in South Carolina.