Introducing Dr. Tiffany Ana López, a visionary artist, administrator, and proven champion for diversity, equity, and inclusion. In her new role at UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts, Dean López intends to further the School’s mission by creating and building connections with the community by harnessing the strengths of the School to create clear throughlines and professional pathways for both student and faculty research. Previously, Dean López served as the Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence at Arizona State University (ASU). She was also the Director of ASU’s School of Film, Dance and Theater at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (HIDA). During her leadership, the film program grew and diversified its curriculum, faculty and students in preparation for launching as the Sidney Poitier New American Film School.
A first-generation college student, Dr. López earned her Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her B.A. from California State University, Sacramento, following a transfer from the California community colleges. She spent 21 years teaching at the University of California, Riverside, where she led Latinx initiatives, programming, and community engagement for the university as Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. She also worked with colleagues in the School of Medicine as a co-PI on an NEH grant with Dr. Juliet McMullin on medical narratives and graphic medicine.
As a literary and production dramaturge, she has worked with numerous companies and theaters, including: Southwest Shakespeare Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Artists Repertory Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum/Center Theatre Group, Arizona Theatre Company, Cornerstone Theater Company, The Los Angeles Theatre Center, CASA 0101, and Breath of Fire Latina Theater Ensemble. Recent production dramaturgy includes: La Ruta by Isaac Gomez; Mother Road by Octavio Solis; Romeo and Juliet; Mojada: A Mexica Medea by Luis Alfaro; Native Gardens by Karen Zacarias. She has also adapted the work of Tomás Rivera for the stage. She is the founding director of the Latina/o Play Project at the Barbara and Art Culver Center for the Arts in Riverside, California and a founding member of the Latino Theater Alliance of Los Angeles, the National Latinx Theater Commons, and the Latinx Literature Society for the American Literature Association.
