Jason Mackie ’17 is Co-Founder and President of InOurHands, a nonprofit developing scalable, high-performance housing solutions using advanced cellular concrete technologies. His work focuses on addressing the affordable housing crisis through systems-level innovation—combining material science, sustainable construction methods, workforce training, and community-based, replicable program development to deliver homes that are durable, energy-efficient, and dramatically more affordable than conventional construction.
Jason’s path to this work has been anything but linear. Before Amherst and the founding of InOurHands, he spent over a decade working in the construction trades, gaining firsthand experience with the inefficiencies and limitations of traditional building materials and methods. At Amherst College, he studied Geology and Environmental Studies, graduating cum laude, with a focus on planetary science and sustainable development. He went on to support research tied to NASA missions including Mars Curiosity, New Horizons, and LUCY, as well as work with the Massachusetts Geological Survey—experiences that shaped his systems-oriented approach to complex, real-world problems.
In 2017, Jason co-founded InOurHands where his early work focused on renewable energy and a pivotal partnership with community leaders on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Confronted with extreme housing shortages and harsh environmental conditions, the organization shifted its focus entirely to housing—ultimately developing the first structurally approved cellular concrete building systems in the United States. Today, InOurHands is working to scale its impact nationally through training programs, research partnerships, and the development of new construction technologies designed to expand access to safe, resilient housing.
Jason’s work is driven by a belief that the most pressing challenges of our time require not only new ideas, but the willingness to act on them. His career reflects a commitment to bridging disciplines—science, construction, social and environmental impact—to build solutions that are both practical and transformative.
How do you use your liberal arts education in the work you do today?
I use my liberal arts education every day—not in a narrow or technical sense, but in the way it trained me to think. At Amherst, I wasn’t just learning geology or environmental systems; I was learning how to approach complex, interconnected problems from multiple angles, to question assumptions, and to synthesize ideas across disciplines. The affordable housing crisis is not just an engineering problem, or a policy problem, or an economic problem—it’s all of those at once. The ability to be deliquescent, moving fluidly between those perspectives, and to stay grounded in both assiduous analytics and the verity of the human condition, has been essential to the work we do at InOurHands.
Just as importantly, a liberal arts education instills a sense of responsibility. It asks not only “What can you do?” but “What should you do?” That framing has shaped the trajectory of my career. Rather than pursuing a traditional path in science or policy, I felt compelled to apply what I had learned in a more direct and tangible way—working alongside communities, building with my own hands, and developing solutions that respond to real, immediate needs. In that sense, my education didn’t point me toward a specific job; it gave me the tools and the obligation to help create one.