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Jackson Cooper is one of the arts sector's leading educators and producers. He currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Arts Administration at Elon University in North Carolina, one of the Top 20 Performing Arts Universities in the nation (Hollywood Reporter, 2026). He is a global leader in philanthropy, arts and culture, nonprofit leadership, and cultural policy with over 15+ years experience curating performing arts, fundraising for national NGOs and nonprofits, teaching at universities, and serving on boards and government commissions. He was recently a Governor-appointed Washington State Arts Commissioner and served as its Advocacy Chair, working with legislators and commissioners to advocate for artists and music venue rights. He was head of major gifts for Pacific Northwest Ballet and Mary's Place Seattle as well as served in leadership fundraising roles for the Washington Arboretum Foundation and Friends of Waterfront Park. In 2024, he served as the executive director of the American Genre Film Archive, a global nonprofit film archive and distributor dedicated to preserving films. He worked with the Academy of Motion Pictures, Cannes Film Festival, Berlinale, and filmmakers Joe Dantes, Quentin Tarantino, and Sean Baker to save lost films. As Executive director he managed the acquisition and retention of intellectual property and distribution rights for a library of 2,000+ theatrical film titles. He expanded AGFA's fundraising and outreach efforts including creating partnerships with the Academy of Motion Pictures, Birmingham City University (UK), Harvard Film Archives, and the Fantastic Pavillion/Cannes Film Festival. He is the author of Nonprofit Boards for Dummies w/Caitlin Pontrella (For Dummies/Wiley, 2026), an upcoming book from Hachette Publishing Group/Turner Classic Movies, Inside Fundraising w/Hannah Grannemann (Columbia Business School Publishing, 2026) and the children's book A Kids Book About Kindness (DK/Penguin, 2025). A trained orchestra/opera conductor he has produced over 150 live performances including a televised tribute to Leonard Bernstein and American Music for PBS/UNC TV and worked with artists such as Father John Misty, the Juilliard Quartet, Rhiannon Giddens, Lara Downes, Timo Andres, and Philip Glass. He has been honored for his accomplishments to advancing the arts/culture sector as 40 Under 40, Puget Sound Business Journal in 2025, the Young Alumni Award, UNC-Greensboro in 2024, named one of the Top 30 Arts Professionals by Musical America in 2023, appointed an Honorary Arts Fellow for The Rainier Club (Seattle) and called one of six leaders in "The Future of Arts Fundraising" by Southern Theatre Magazine.