Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson
Chair, The National Endowment for the Arts
Join us for a conversation on Philanthropy & the Arts with Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson
Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, Chair, The National Endowment for the Arts, joins us for our next Distinguished Speaker Series to discuss the intersection of place making and the arts, as well as the important role the arts plays in social change with our friend and colleague Rip Rapson, President and CEO, The Kresge Foundation.
After confirmation by the U.S. Senate in December 2021, Dr. Jackson became the 13th chair of the National Endowment for the Arts in January 2022. With this historic appointment, Dr. Jackson is the nation’s first NEA chair to be an African American and Mexican American woman.
Dr. Jackson has a long career in strategic planning, policy research and evaluation with philanthropy, government, and nonprofit organizations. She has served as an advisor on philanthropic programs and investments at national, regional, and local foundations.
For more than 25 years, Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson’s work has focused on understanding and elevating arts, culture, and design as critical elements of healthy communities. Her work blends social science and arts- and humanities-based approaches to comprehensive community revitalization, systems change, the dynamics of race and ethnicity, and the roles of arts and culture in communities.