Leigh Markopoulos is the chair of the Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice located on the San Francisco campus of California College of the Arts.

Formerly the director of Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco, Markopoulos came to San Francisco to take up the position of deputy director of the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. Prior to that she was exhibition organizer at the Serpentine Gallery in London, and at the Hayward Gallery. She has curated numerous exhibitions, including most recently Love is a Stranger at Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, and has organized over 50 exhibitions ranging from solo shows of Richard Artschwager, Dan Flavin, and Brice Marden to major group exhibitions such as Monuments for the USA and IRREDUCIBLE: Contemporary Short Form Video.

Markopoulos is a frequent reviewer for the online journal Art Practical and has also worked on many freelance writing and editorial projects, including most recently contributing an essay for Johan Grimonprez's solo show at ltd los angeles. Her essay, "The Shape of Exhibitions," on mutable exhibition formats, will appear in the inaugural issue of The Journal for Curatorial Studies (September 2011). From 2003–10 she was an adjunct professor in CCA's Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice and was reappointed as associate professor in 2010.