Dean, College of Fine Arts, Carnegie Mellon University

Prior to his appointment as Dean of Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Fine Arts, Dan most recently served Director of the Institute for the Management of Creative Enterprises (IMCE), a collaborative initiative of the College of Fine Arts and the H. John Heinz III College which provides professional graduate-level management training for the culture and entertainment industries through its Master of Arts Management (MAM) and Master of Entertainment Industry Management (MEIM) programs, and applied research and support services through Technology in the Arts (TitA), a service devoted to the exploration of computer and information technology in the arts management process.

Dan’s vision and effort built IMCE into what it is today. He joined the Carnegie Mellon faculty in 1992 to direct the MAM Program. In the mid-90s, as Internet technology was just emerging beyond the academic community, Dan founded the Center for Arts Management and Technology (TitA’s predecessor). In 2004, he established the MEIM Program, an innovative academic program that includes a year of educational and practical work in Los Angeles, to serve the management education needs of the film and television industries.

Dan has consulted with cultural organizations in strategic planning, information technology, and finance management. He has presented workshops and master classes in arts management, organizational structure, information technology, board development and other topics at universities and for arts service organizations in the United States, Canada, Germany, Spain, Austria, Greece and Italy.

Dan, professor of arts and entertainment management in Carnegie Mellon’s School of Drama, also is on the faculty of the Management and Development of Cultural and Artistic Organizations Program in the School of Economics at the University of Bologna (Italy) and he serves on the advisory board of the Fitzcarraldo Foundation, an arts management training and consulting center in Turin, Italy. Dan served on the faculty of the European Summer Academy for Cultural Management in Salzburg (Austria) and on the advisory or steering committees of several professional and research institutions, including the Center for Arts and Culture and Americans for the Arts.

Dan has authored a number of reports, magazine articles and journal articles on arts management and related issues, and is co-author with Francois Colbert of HEC/Montreal of Marketing Planning for Culture and the Arts: Fundamental Principles and Practices for Building an Effective Marketing Campaign published in the fall of 2008.

Prior to joining the academic community in 1989 as Director of the Arts Management Program at The University of Akron (Ohio), Dan spent fourteen years in not-for-profit professional and educational theatre administration: Managing Director of CSC Repertory (New York City), Managing Director of Virginia Stage Company (Norfolk), Marketing Director of the Walnut Street Theatre Company (Philadelphia), and Marketing Director/Front-of-House Manager of the University Theatre, Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo). Dan also has spent several years with summer-theatre operations in Michigan, New Hampshire and Minnesota. While in New York City, Dan worked in the Theatre Program Office of FEDAPT (Foundation for the Extension and Development of the American Professional Theatre) and with the Richard Morse Mime Theatre. During the summers of 1994 and 1995, Dan served as Associate Producer of Carnegie Mellon Drama’s Showcase of New Plays.

Dan holds an undergraduate degree in Theatre at Western Michigan University (which inducted him into their Alumni Honors Society in 2002) and earned his Master of Fine Arts in Performing Arts Management at City University of New York under the late Stephen Langley, prominent arts management scholar and practitioner, and considered the “founding dean” of arts management.