The first USA executive director of the African Women’s Development Fund-USA, Dr. Jackie Copeland-Carson, an anthropologist and urban planner, has worked as a global philanthropy scholar and practitioner. She has been an executive, evaluator or researcher with numerous foundations, including the Philadelphia, Noyes, Women’s Funding Network, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, Institute for the Future, Bertelsmann, US Bank Private Client Group, among many others.

Dr. Copeland-Carson’s influential writings are shaping trends in multiple fields. For example, “Pan-Africanizing Philanthropy”(Palgrave, 2012); ”Kenyan Diaspora Philanthropy” (TPI/Harvard University, 2007); “Promoting Diversity in Contemporary Black Philanthropy” (Indiana University, 2004); Creating Evaluation Anthropology (with Mary O. Butler, Wiley & Sons 2005)); Creating Africa in America (University of Pennsylvania, 2004) examine various issues in the black diaspora, global affairs, community development and women’s leadership..

In 1998, she was a recipient of the Bush Foundation’s prestigious Leadership Fellowship recognizing her contributions to community leadership. As a volunteer she has been on the boards of more than 20 nonprofit organizations and in 2003 founded the Pan-African Women’s Philanthropy Network (PAWPNet), a growing community of black people, and their allies, devoted to advancing philanthropy community.

Dr. Copeland-Carson holds two masters degrees, one in urban planning and the other in cultural anthropology, with a Ph.D. in anthropology (African/African diaspora and South Asian concentration) all from the University of Pennsylvania. Her undergraduate degrees are from Georgetown University in literature with a certificate in African studies from its School for Foreign Service, including study at Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria.

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