Jackie Abell obtained her first degree in Psychology from the University of Dundee in Scotland. Her undergraduate dissertation was an exploration of national identity and was later published in the British Journal of Social Psychology.

She then went on to complete an MSc in Critical Social Psychology at Lancaster University. This work expanded her knowledge of identity approaches within social psychology. She became particularly interested in discursive psychology during this time, and upon completion of her MSc, she went to study for a PhD at Loughborough University, supervised by Professor Michael Billig.

Her first lectureship was in social psychology at Lancaster University. After continuing to conduct research on identity, she become interested in ways that social psychological models and concepts could be applied to animal conservation and lion reintroduction. To improve her biological knowledge, she completed an MSc in Animal Behaviour, and took up a role with the African Lion and Environmental Research Trust as Director of Research.

She has since published papers on conservation, reintroduction programs, and identity. She is the lead author of the David Myers' "Social Psychology" textbook (European edition). In 2013. Dr. Abell was approved as a member of the IUCN, SSC Conservation Planning and Specialist Group, who are a select group of experts responsible for conservation strategies throughout the world. In 2016, she was elected to the African Lion Working Group, representing the social sciences within the field of lion conservation. She aims to continue championing the role of social sciences in conservation work, broadening the discipline to address this real-world problem, and applying theory and method to the study of human-animal relations and interactions.