Arizona State University professor Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson has been officially named as President Biden’s nominee for chair of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Once confirmed, Dr. Jackson would become the first Black and Mexican American woman ever appointed to the prestigious chair since the agency’s inception during the Johnson administration. 

Dr. Jackson holds a PhD in Urban Planning from UCLA and has served on the National Council on the Arts since 2013. She is currently a tenured faculty member at ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, where her work focuses on community revitalization, race and ethnicity studies, and systems change.

Dr. Jackson is a native of Los Angeles and joins Harvard professor Shelly Lowe, a citizen of the Navajo Nation whom Biden tapped for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) chair, on a progressive slate with shared agendas that look to move forward in their mission in the wake of threats to eliminate both agencies that have colored their recent histories.

The incoming chair will likely inherit a proposed $201 million budget that “reflects the importance of the creative workforce in rebuilding the national economy, especially after a time of unprecedented disruption,” according to acting NEA chair Ann Ellers. 

“I am continuously inspired by the myriad ways in which artists, designers, and culture bearers make a difference, whether it be through celebrated national and international careers or through careers where artists are embedded in our communities, institutions, and organizations helping us to see and act in new ways as we move towards a more perfect union,” the nominee said.

Following confirmation, Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson will serve a four-year term.