Sandra Lee Jackson (née Stevens; born September 14, 1963) is an American politician. She was elected to the Chicago City Council as an alderman of the 7th ward of the City of Chicago in the 2007 municipal elections held on February 27, 2007. She succeeded Darcel A. Beavers who had been appointed by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley after the 2006 November elections to succeed her father William Beavers, Jackson's rival, as alderman of the 7th Ward. Jackson resigned from Chicago City Council, effective January 15, 2013. On February 20, 2013, Jackson pleaded guilty to one count of filing false tax returns, and on August 14, 2013 was sentenced to one year in prison. She is the ex-wife of former U.S. Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. and erstwhile daughter-in-law of Jesse Jackson. Her candidacy for the city council of a major city was part of national news stories in The New York Times, and thoughts of her running for a position in the United States House of Representatives were noted in Time. Jackson has also been a longtime political consultant through her solely owned consulting firm J. Donatella & Associates. Personal life Born in Kittery, Maine, Jackson grew up in Akron, Ohio. She is an alumna of Buchtel High School in Akron. Her mother, Sarah Stevens, who is from Atlanta, Georgia, worked three jobs cleaning homes to raise Jackson and two other children. Later Jackson helped her mother clean homes to pay her way through Bowling Green State University, where she earned her bachelor's degree in 1985. Jackson's father, Robert Stevens, was from Akron. Jackson met her future husband while still a law student at Georgetown University Law Center and he convinced her to transfer to be with him at the University of Illinois College of Law, where she earned her Juris Doctor in 1992. The couple married on June 1, 1991. The Jackson family keeps two homes. They own one in the South Shore community area, which is within both the Illinois's 2nd congressional district that Congressman Jackson represented in the United States House of Representatives and within the seventh ward that Sandi Jackson represents on the Chicago City Council. The South Shore home serves as an election base. This home was the featured renovation on an HGTV Hidden Potential episode, first aired on March 24, 2009. They also own a home in Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C., which served