Apr 21, 2022
Dear colleagues,
On behalf of Chancellor Gillman, it is my privilege to announce the appointment of Tiffany Ana López as dean of UCI’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts, effective July 1, 2022.
Dean López comes to UCI from Arizona State University where she has served as Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence since 2020. In this role, she is responsible for advancing diversity, equity and inclusion across the academic enterprise, including collaboration with faculty, staff and students on a range of projects, initiatives and programs. Previously, she served as Foundation Professor and Director of ASU’s School of Film, Dance and Theater in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. Under her leadership, the School’s film program transitioned to become the Sidney Poitier New American Film School. She also advanced the theater and dance programs in the newly formed School of Music, Dance and Theatre.
Dean López is a first-generation Latina representing the promise of California’s master plan for higher education having matriculated from community college to California State University, Sacramento, and then to UC Santa Barbara to earn her M.A. and Ph.D. She then joined the faculty at UC Riverside where she served 21 years as Professor of Theatre, Film and Digital Production and Tomas Rivera Endowed Chair.
Dean López is an arts and humanities scholar and theater artist whose work explores how people and communities tell stories about trauma and violence and the impact of creativity in launching paths for personal transformation and social change. Her professional accomplishments include time as a Fulbright scholar in Spain, a variety of publications, seven years as co-editor of Chicana/Latina Studies, and numerous grants and fellowships, including support from The Rockefeller Foundation, Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and National Endowment for the Arts.
Dean López has worked with several theater companies, including the Mark Taper Forum, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Cornerstone Theater Company, and is founding director of the Latina/o Play Project at the Barbara and Art Culver Center for the Arts in Riverside, a founding member of the Latino Theater Alliance of Los Angeles, and the National Latinx Theater Commons. Dean López is currently on the board of Southwest Shakespeare Company, and previously served on the boards of Breath of Fire Latina Theater in Santa Ana and Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica. She has received many awards and honors for her work including the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award from the Faculty Women’s Association at Arizona State University in 2019 and the Latina of Influence Hispanic Lifestyle National Award in 2015.
I am grateful to the search committee and its chair, Stephen Tucker, Professor and Robert and Marjorie Rawlins Chair of the Department of Music, for their contributions to this nationwide search. I would also like to extend my appreciation to Stephen Barker for his years of leadership and service.
Please join me in welcoming Dean López to UCI.
Sincerely,Hal SternProvost and Executive Vice ChancellorChancellor’s Professor, Department of Statistics