Elise Lael Kieffer, PhD, currently serves as Program Director and Assistant Professor of Nonprofit Leadership Studies at Murray State University. She also serves as Executive Director of the Nonprofit Resource Center, providing technical support and professional development for nonprofit organizations across West Kentucky. She is Vice President of Conferences for Social Theory, Politics, and the Arts. She serves on the strategic planning committee for NACC (Nonprofit Academic Centers Council) and on the editorial boards of JNEL (Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership), International Journal of Regional Issues in the Arts (IJRIA), and OIKOS-Cuadernos de Economía de la Cultura. She holds a PhD in arts administration from Florida State University, an MPA from Tennessee State University and a BFA from Jacksonville University (FL). Her research focuses include developing capacity at nonprofit arts organizations serving rural communities and improving communication between rural arts organizations and public funding agencies. Recently released, Rural Arts Management (Routledge, 2024, co-authored with Dr. Jerome Socolof). She is published in Business Issues in the Arts, Local Government in Small-town America, Journal of Nonprofit Innovation, American Journal of Arts Management, International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education, and the International Journal of Social, Political, and Community Agendas in the Arts. She currently lives with her family in Murray, Kentucky.
