Department of Theatre and Dance

• PhD Educational/Applied Theatre, New York University

• MA Teachers of Educational Theatre, New York University

• BA Children’s Literature and Mythology (Education Concentration), Vassar College 

Dr. Gina L. Grandi comes to Appalachian State by way of New York University, where she taught theatre education and pre-certification courses and worked as a professional development consultant with public schools in the city. She continues to facilitate professional development work with K-12 teachers, specifically around arts integration, culturally responsive pedagogy, and anti-racist curriculum and classroom practices. She serves as an editorial board member for the journal Voices in Urban Education.

In her pre-university life, she was a full-time public school teacher in San Francisco for thirteen years, teaching both 5th Grade and High School Theatre and Humanities. For ten years in New York, she worked as a teaching artist, teacher mentor, and non-profit program director, working to bring theatre programs to underserved high schools.

She is the co-founder and artistic director of The Bechdel Group, a theatre company dedicated to fostering writers writing for women. She is the editor of a series of anthologies of ten-minute plays produced through the company. Gina also serves as an artistic associate and dramaturg for NYU’s New Plays for Young Audiences series. In addition, Gina is a mask and puppet designer and her short fiction has been featured in Cicada, Apex Magazine, Gold Fever Press, and 100wordstory.org.

Additional publications include:

• “’I’m Gonna Use It to Tell You:’ Self-Reflection and Construction of Self,” ArtsPraxis (Vol.7, Issue 1)

• “Theatre as Method: Performance Creation as Qualitative Inquiry,” Action Research Journal 

• “Trends and Tribulations: Choosing and Developing TYA Scripts” (working title), chapter for inclusion in the upcoming Routledge Companion on Theatre and Youth (co-author)