Events

Major Jonathan Cooper is a Senior Kroc Center Officer holding  a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership and a Bachelor’s Degree in Ministry. His love for music, sports—both playing and watching—and quality time with family enrich his ministry and leadership. He has a passion for equipping and discipling leaders.

Eugene Kowel serves as the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Omaha Field Office. Appointed to the role in October 2020, Mr. Kowel overseas all FBI personnel, operations, and criminal, national security, and cyber investigations across the Nebraska and Iowa

Mr. Kowel joined the FBI as a special agent in 2005 and was assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force in the New York Field Office, where he led counterterrorism investigations and criminal cases. Mr. Kowel completed deployments to Iraq in 2008 and Afghanistan in 2009.

He was promoted to supervisory special agent in 2010 in the Counterterrorism Division at FBI Headquarters and subsequently selected as a Unit Chief.

In 2013, Mr. Kowel was named the supervisor of the Savannah Resident Agency. He oversaw all FBI criminal and counterterrorism investigations and led four task forces in southeast Georgia.

Mr. Kowel was promoted in 2016 as an assistant special agent in charge in the Los Angeles Field Office. He led the violent gang, organized crime, violent crime, and drug trafficking investigative programs in Los Angeles. In 2019 he was selected as the chief of staff and section chief in the Intelligence Branch in Washington, DC. 

Mr. Kowel graduated from the University of Virginia and earned his law degree from the New York University School of Law.  Mr. Kowel served as an assistant district attorney in New York City before joining the FBI. He currently serves as an adjunct Professor at Creighton University School of Law.

Ashley Olson has been a member of the National Willa Cather Center staff since 2008 and has served as the organization’s Executive Director since 2014. In this role, she oversees a museum, arts center, ten historic sites, and a 612-acre native prairie—together comprising the largest collection of nationally designated historic sites dedicated to an American author. 

Under Olson’s leadership, the Center’s assets have grown by more than $17 million. She has strengthened institutional capacity by growing the staff from a primarily part-time team to a majority full-time workforce. Olson has also led strategic initiatives to expand the Center’s core programs in an effort to broaden the organization’s local and national reach. A cornerstone achievement of her tenure was the $7 million adaptive reuse of the historic Moon Block building, transforming it into a museum and archive that anchors the Center’s operations and interpretive work. Building on that momentum, the Center later accepted a major gift of six historic sites and an associated collection of more than 8,000 objects. Olson has since overseen significant capital improvements to preserve these sites, improve accessibility, and prepare them for new exhibits and interpretation. She has secured and administered grants from the National Park Service and from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to restore the Willa Cather Childhood Home and to develop new permanent exhibits. 

Olson holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She also holds a Certificate in Fundraising Management (CFM) and is a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE), reflecting the highest standards of ethical and professional practice in the field.

Since 2021, Jo Giles has led the Women’s Fund of Omaha’s work to address gender-based inequities through collaboration that identifies, researches, and innovates solutions to advance, educate and fund lasting impact.

Before joining the team, Jo was the Policy and Training Director for the Coalition for a Strong Nebraska (CSN), where she created training sessions for members and others in the nonprofit sector, to be able to participate more fully in the public policy advocacy process. She is also an award-winning media relations professional and journalist and was a television reporter/anchor for Omaha’s KPTM Fox 42 News.

Jo has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia, a bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis, and a certificate in public health from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Jo enjoys community service and is a board member of Omaha Community Foundation, Omaha Public Library Foundation and Omaha Public Radio KIOS. In her spare time, Jo is an avid reader, enjoys running and spending time with her family, including her husband, their son and goldendoodle.