Jan Erkert is Professor Emerita at the University of Illinois where she served as Head of the Department of Dance from 2006-2022. She writes about embodiment as a source for leadership and life.

As Artistic Director of Jan Erkert & Dancers she created over 70 works that received recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council. Erkert’s research explores leadership from an embodied perspective. She has been awarded two major awards from the University of Illinois - the Executive Officer Distinguished Leadership Award (2020), for her outstanding leadership and vision, and the Larine Y. Cowan Make a Difference Award for Leadership in Diversity (2014) for her work to undo racism within the department, college and university. She is a 2020 Public Voices Fellow with the OpEd Project and the Director of the OpEd Alumni Project at the University of Illinois. She has published OpEds in such platforms as CNN Opinion, Ms. Magazine, Public Seminar and the Chicago Sun-Times. She is currently seeking publication of her manuscript, Every Body has a Body full of Wisdom, Stories of Leadership and Life, and has published a blog, artists on leadership.

Ms. Erkert has been a national leader in dance, serving as the President of the Council of Dance Administrators and as a commissioner on accreditation for the National Association for Schools of Dance. She is a Fulbright Scholar Awardee and a nationally renowned teacher having conducted guest artist residencies throughout the United States, Mexico, Europe and Asia. She is the author of Harnessing the Wind: The Art of Teaching Modern Dance (2003) and she received the 1999 Excellence in Teaching Award from Columbia College Chicago. She currently serves as a Leadership Consultant and leads- From Body to Body, A Teaching Workshop - for dance graduate students and faculty.

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