Jacqueline Elaine Gladfelter Devereaux

Jackie Devereaux is an accomplished American writer who first “earned her stripes” as a journalist in print, radio, and television across California and Nevada. She later retooled her skills for public relations, screenwriting, novel writing, and book publishing. Before becoming a professional writer, Jackie overcame significant personal challenges. Born at Seward Air Force Base in Tennessee and raised as a military brat, she attended a different public school every year, including two schools in both the ninth and eleventh grades. With a father who gambled and erratic family finances, she began working as a galley girl and waitress at age 14 to contribute to the household. Raised by a “heavy-handed” mother and a predatory older brother, she eventually ran away at the end of her junior year to make her own way. She finished high school on her own, married at 18 and later divorced at 25.

To pay for college tuition and living expenses, Jackie worked three part-time waitressing jobs. During this time, she battled alcohol and substance abuse and escaped an abusive relationship. Rather than harboring blame, she views these obstacles as part of a destiny that forged her determination to succeed.

Jackie’s writing career took off while she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Writing from the University of California, San Diego, graduating magna cum laude in 1984. While there, she wrote front-page stories for the UCSD Guardian. She landed her first professional journalism job as a reporter for the Pomerado Publishing newspaper group, writing for the Rancho Bernardo Journal, The Poway News-Chieftain, and the Rancho Peñasquitos News. She was later hired as a reporter by the Vista Morning Press and subsequently by County News Service (CNS), where she covered state and federal courts, City Hall, the County Board of Supervisors, and law enforcement. At CNS, she wrote between three and 13 stories a day for print, broadcast, and wire clients, including the San Diego bureaus of the Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times.

Throughout her four-decade career, Jackie worked in San Diego and Las Vegas for numerous media outlets as an executive producer, on-air anchor, and news writer. At KSDO radio, she served as a news writer and producer for The Stacy Taylor Show and Weekends Are Special with Ken Kramer. At XTRA-AM, she worked for MLB Hall of Famer Steve Garvey as the executive producer of The Steve Garvey Sports Talk Show.

In late 1988, Jackie was left grief-stricken by the tragic death of her sister, Jaye, who died in a car crash at age 28 while traveling to visit her. In 1990, Jackie married Craig George Michael Evers, who introduced her to Tibetan Buddhism, Hinduism, and Eastern mysticism during travels through Thailand, Nepal, India, and Mexico to help her heal.

Upon returning to the U.S., she served as the assistant press secretary for Susan Golding’s 1992 San Diego mayoral campaign. She then transitioned to Metro Networks and Shadow Broadcasting as an on-air anchor and producer. In 1998, she relocated to Las Vegas to be near her father and worked for KLAS-TV as an assignment editor, later becoming the press secretary for Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman in 1999.

In 2000, Jackie moved to San Francisco to work as a senior account executive for Weber Shandwick. Following the dot-com implosion of 2003, she utilized her investigative reporting background to work as an assistant private investigator and process server. In 2008, she founded her own community newspaper, The Desert Star Weekly, serving as editor-in-chief until its sale. She then moved to San Felipe and later Rosarito Beach, Baja California, to focus on creative writing. Since 2009, she has completed several screenplays through ScreenwritingU; two have been optioned and others have earned contest awards.

A lifelong student of astrology and parapsychology, Jackie completed five years of coursework in Divinity and Theology with the Institute of Mentalphysics, becoming an ordained reverend in 2020. She later earned a Master of Arts in Education from California State University, San Bernardino, in 2024. She also holds a certificate in Medical Cannabis Science from Cornell University, stemming from her role as Director of Communications at Royal Emerald Pharmaceuticals.

In mid-2025, Jackie returned to Rosarito Beach to pursue personal writing projects. In early 2026, she founded Jackie Devereaux Publishing to self-publish her ten novels in both English and Spanish. Her current “career opus” is White Roots, an autobiographical-historical novel chronicling her ancestors’ 1743 immigration from Switzerland to Philadelphia.

Jackie lives in Rosarito Beach with her third husband, Thomas William Devereaux, and their Pug, Lucky. When not overlooking the Pacific Ocean writing and publishing, she enjoys cooking sumptuous meals for her husband and friends.