[3] After graduating from Colgate, he attended the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University where he earned a Ph.D. in 1976 in International Relations.

[6] AEI is a non-profit organization specializing in the study of the methods of nonviolent resistance in conflict[7] (according to Bloomberg News, "advises pro-democracy activists on how to topple dictators via protests and mock elections"[8]).

During this time he co-authored the book Strategic Nonviolent Conflict: The Dynamics of People Power in the Twentieth Century with Christopher Kruegler.

In 2002, Ackerman was the Executive Producer of the PBS documentary Bringing Down A Dictator, which chronicled the fall of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic by nonviolent means.

[9] According to Bloomberg, "In 2005, he co-wrote a study showing that non-violent action had been instrumental in 50 of 67 transitions to democracy since 1972, including in Chile, the Philippines and Poland.

Some members of Egypt's April 6 movement, which toppled President Hosni Mubarak, took civil resistance training from Canvas organizers in Belgrade.

[9] Around 2004, Ackerman, until then one of the major donors of the Albert Einstein Institution, withdrew his funding, and Sharp was forced to run the organization out of his home in Boston.

[14] While at Drexel, Ackerman made more than $300 million working alongside 'Junk Bond King' Michael Milken, raising billions of dollars for junk-bond-fueled takeovers.

[25] In October 2012 Ackerman, along with New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Passport Capital founder John Burbank, funded the purchase of $1.75 million in independent political advertising, in the name of Ackerman's tax-exempt Americans Elect organization, to support the Senate campaign of Maine governor Angus King.