Jonathan Katz

Professor of Practice in Cultural Policy and Arts Management
George Mason University

Jonathan Katz, Ph.D., is Professor of Practice in Cultural Policy and Arts Management, George Mason University. He consults extensively on strategic planning, cultural policy development, advocacy, leadership development and the value of arts education. He served as CEO of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) from 1985 through 2014, guiding that network of 56 government agencies through three major recessions, shifts of state and federal political philosophies, cultural controversies and the digital revolution as they grew to manage more than $400 million annually and as Congress doubled their percentage of the program budget of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) from 20% to 40%.

He is particularly proud of co-founding the Arts Education Partnership; co-founding the Cultural Advocacy Group, which is the coalition of national associations that each year unites to advocate for the federal cultural agencies; and partnering the state arts agencies with the Poetry Foundation and the NEA to establish Poetry Out Loud, the project that has now engaged over 3.6 million high school students in an annual national poetry recitation competition. His poetry collections, Love Undefined and Objects in Motion, are published by C&R Press.