Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson

Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson’s expertise is in comprehensive community revitalization, systems change, dynamics of race and ethnicity and roles of and arts and culture in communities. She is Institute Professor at Arizona State University with appointments in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and the College of Public Service and Community Solutions. She is also Senior Advisor to the Kresge Foundation working with the Arts and Culture Program and the Foundation’s Learning and Evaluation unit. In 2013, President Obama appointed Dr. Jackson to the National Council on the Arts. She advises national and regional initiatives on arts leadership, arts organizations and changing demographics, arts and community development and arts and health. Previously, for 18 years, she was based at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. where she led pioneering work on arts and culture in low-income and historically marginalized communities. Dr. Jackson earned a Ph.D. in Urban Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Southern California.