Maria-Rosario Jackson

Maria-Rosario Jackson, Senior Research Associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center and Director of the Urban Institute’s Culture, Creativity, and Communities Program.

“New research on arts and culture points to a range of impacts in US communities. Arts and culture – including informal activities such as gatherings in parks and community centers where group traditions are maintained and/or invented, church-based artistic activity, and through the convergence of professional working artists in neighborhoods – shape communities in a variety of ways ranging from community health to community development and the creation of social capital. Planners and policymakers would do well to incorporate new research findings about arts and culture into their work on the design and revitalization of communities.”

Dr. Jackson’s research expertise includes neighborhood revitalization and comprehensive community planning, the politics of race, ethnicity and gender in urban settings, and the role of arts and culture in communities. Her work has appeared in academic and professional journals as well as edited volumes in the fields of urban planning, sociology, community development and the arts. http://www.urban.org/expert.cfm?ID=MariaRosarioJackson She has been a speaker at numerous national and international conferences focusing on quality of life, changing demographics, communities and cities of the future, and arts and society. She earned a doctorate in Urban Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles, an MPA from the University of Southern California and she is adjunct faculty at Claremont Graduate University.