Jacqueline Copeland has a lifelong passion for art, culture and history. Copeland has served as a senior museum professional for nearly 30 years at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN and the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD, where she worked for 15 years. At the Walters where she served as Director of Education and Deputy Director of Audience Engagement, she led the Education Division that was the recipient of local and national awards for its creative and innovative programs. A member of both museum’s senior management teams, she worked steadily to craft a team-based approach within the museum for exhibition and program development, and led the museum’s efforts to evaluate the exhibition and program experience.  In 2011 she discovered, in a Baltimore antique shop, a heretofore unknown and rare photograph (c.1872 -1878) of African American sculptor Edmonia Lewis. She is a curator of private collections, a museum consultant, and a Peer Reviewer for the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). Copeland recently joined the senior management team of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture (the Lewis), where she is Director of Education and Visitor Services.

At the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis Copeland was a member of the team that developed the website ArtsNet Minnesota, and later, the award-winning website ArtsConnectEd. A trained art historian she also served as curator for Walters’ exhibitions Barbara Chase-Riboud The Monument Series, Walter Wick: Games, Gizmos and Toys in the Attic, and Jacob Lawrence Genesis Series. In 2017 she co-curated the critically acclaimed Lewis Museum exhibition Maryland Collects: Jacob Lawrence.  She is the recipient of the 2008 Museum Educator of the Year, Eastern Region by the National Arts Education Association and the 2005 Living Women’s History Maker Award from the National Association of National Black Professional Women’s Clubs. A 2004 graduate of the Getty’s Museum Leadership Institute, Copeland served as a member of the Board of Directors, ArtsEveryDay; the Board of Observers, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa; and the Fine Arts Advisory Panel, Maryland State Department of Education for 12 years. Copeland has been an adjunct professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Johns Hopkins Museums Studies Program. She is in her 10^th year as an Adjunct Professor at Towson University where she teaches an interdisciplinary course on The Harlem Renaissance.