Karen Chandler is the Director of the Graduate Certificate in Arts and Cultural Management at the College of Charleston. She is also the Co-Founder of the Charleston Jazz Initiative and has researched the impact of Southern Jazz musicians on American and European history. Chandler has had experience directing the College of Charleston’s Research Center for African American History and Culture, specifically leading the arts and cultural programs. She received her Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Hampton University, her Master’s Degree for Music Education from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. for Studies in Arts and Humanities at New York University. Chandler was won many honors and awards pertaining to her work in South Carolinian connections to Jazz and African American Heritage. She has also published work focusing on Gullah Culture, Charleston Jazz, Management in the Arts, and other related topics.

Chandler’s hometown of Nashville, Tennessee influenced her interest in studying the music and piano work of Southern African American composers as a child. Gathering the influence of both classical European music mixed with her connection to the Black Baptist churches of the South, Chandler was nurtured in two culturally mixed and interconnected backgrounds of music. Beyond personal connections to the South and its musical and cultural heritage, Chandler has continuously centered her professional work around similar topics. In much of her independent research, she has concentrated on the impact of Charleston’s Gullah music on the development of jazz in both the United States and Europe. Furthermore, Chandler confirms that “Gullah rhythms and musical Africanisms of Charleston deserve attention in the jazz canon as they are an undeniable American artifact.” In addition to her distinguished and plentiful publications, Chandler is currently “working on a jazz anthology based on the work of the Charleston Jazz Initiative.” She is also working on an extension of her 2018 essay, “Bin Yah (Been Here). Africanisms and Jazz Influences in Gullah Culture.”