Karen Brooks Hopkins Joins the Jerome L. Greene Foundation Board of Directors
Longtime president of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, current Senior Fellow in
Residence at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, becomes Foundation trustee
The Jerome L. Greene Foundation, which supports projects that focus on the arts, education, health, and social justice, is pleased to announce the appointment of Karen Brooks Hopkins to its board of directors. Ms. Hopkins, former president of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), is the Senior Fellow in Residence at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
“We are thrilled to have Karen join our board of directors,” said Jerome L. Greene Foundation President Christina McInerney. “Her background, experience, and deep insights into the fields of culture, education, and urban advocacy are a perfect fit for the projects we support, both in New York City and around the nation.”
As the Senior Fellow in Residence for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Ms. Hopkins is authoring a book focused on the critical role of the arts as a source of urban revitalization, sharing her knowledge of leadership, fundraising, and arts administration. Since 1979, Ms. Hopkins was an employee at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and served as its president from 1999 to 2015. During that time, she transformed the organization into one of the world’s preeminent cultural institutions and played an integral role in the creation of the Brooklyn Cultural District surrounding BAM.
Stated Ms. Hopkins: “I am thrilled to join the Foundation and hope to actively participate in expanding its support of innovative arts and educational projects which enhance artistic process, audience experience, and community engagement.”
While at BAM, Ms. Hopkins served for two years as chair of the 33-member Cultural Institutions Group, member of the Mayor’s Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission, and on the boards of NYC & Company, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, the Global Cultural Districts Network, and as an active member and former chair of the Performing Arts Center Consortium, a national association of performing arts centers. She served on the advisory committee of the Salzburg Seminar Project of Critical Issues for the Classical Performing Arts and was a Fellow with the Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Center for Business Innovation. In 2006, Ms. Hopkins was elected by the New York State Legislature to the Board of Regents for a term that expired in 2010.
Ms. Hopkins was executive director of the 1995 Bergman Festival, a celebration of the life and work of Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. Its success earned her a medal from the Royal Dramatic Theater of Sweden, making her the first non-Swede to receive the honor. In 2005, she received the Encore Award in Arts Management Excellence from the Arts & Business Council of New York, and chaired the hospitality and tourism cluster of the Initiative for a Competitive Brooklyn. Crain’s named Ms. Hopkins one of the “100 Most Influential Women in New York City Business” in 2007, a “Woman of Achievement” and one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in New York” in 2013, and an inaugural member of their Hall of Fame in 2014.
Ms. Hopkins has received many other awards, including Norway’s St. Olav Medal for her work with the Norwegian National Ballet; the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Republic of France for supporting the French arts in the U.S., and Commander of the Royal Order of the Polar Star, for solidifying ties between performing arts communities in Sweden and the U.S. She has also received honorary doctorates from St. Francis College in Brooklyn, Pratt Institute, and Long Island University.
Ms. Hopkins served for four years as an adjunct professor in the Brooklyn College Program for Arts Administration. Her book, Successful Fundraising for Arts & Cultural Organizations, is currently available in its second edition. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland and received her MFA from George Washington University in Washington, DC. She was recently elected to the board of the Alexander Onassis Public Benefit Foundation and resides in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Ms. Hopkins will be joining Dr. Jeremiah Barondess, former President of the New York Academy of Medicine, and Hildy Simmons, former head of JPMorgan Chase’s Global Foundation Group, on the Board.
About The Jerome L. Greene Foundation
Since its founding in 1978 by New York attorney and real estate investor Jerry Greene, the Jerome L. Greene Foundation has invested in institutions and initiatives to better the lives of New Yorkers and people around the world. Major projects have included building the Jerome L. Greene Science Center at Columbia University, the Greene Space, a performance and broadcast venue in lower Manhattan, and the American Red Cross Hope Lodge Cancer Center; supporting the digital outreach of New York Public Radio and Planned Parenthood; creating scholarship endowments at the Juilliard School, Columbia Law School and the Fashion Institute of Technology; and underwriting exhibits and performances at the Jewish Museum, the Museum of the City of New York and Lincoln Center Theater. To learn more about the Foundation, visit its website, jlgreene.org.
