Jane Chu is currently a Leader-in-Residence at the Colin Powell School. She combines her academic research and professional practice in the arts, philanthropy, and business administration. In 2014, she was appointed to serve as the eleventh chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts, completing her term in June 2018. A practicing visual artist, Chu is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
During Chu’s four-year tenure at the National Endowment for the Arts, Chu traveled to 50 US states and four countries, 200 communities and made more than 400 site visits to meet with artists and arts leaders, government and civic leaders, philanthropists and the general public. The NEA awarded $430 million over the four years to support the arts in 16,000 communities covering 50 states, US jurisdictions, and in every Congressional District. In 2016, the NEA was ranked number one in the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government for small agencies.
Prior to coming to the National Endowment for the Arts, Chu served as the founding president and CEO of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, overseeing a $413 million campaign to construct and open the performing arts center in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri.
Jane Chu straddles multiple cultures, having been born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and raised in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, the daughter of Chinese immigrants.
Education
- PhD, Philanthropic Studies, Indiana University
- MBA, Rockhurst University
- MM, Piano Pedagogy, Southern Methodist University
- BM, Piano Performance and Music Education, Ouachita Baptist University
- Associate Degree in Visual Arts, Nebraska Wesleyan University
