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CCA welcomes new leadership to the division

Center for Performing Arts
Center for Performing Arts Photo: Jessica Dusing '16

This Fall, the College of Creative Arts will welcome three new department chairs and a new program director to its leadership team.

As former Chair of the Department of Theatre, Dean Liz Mullenix notes, "being a department chair is really one of the most difficult leadership challenges in the Academy because chairs live right in that nexus between supporting faculty priorities (teaching and research) and delivering on upper administrative mandates. Motivating and inspiring one's colleagues to do the important work of the university in addition to serving as excellent teachers, researchers, and creative artists can be a daunting task."

The College of Creative Arts welcomes the following new colleagues to Miami: Rob Robbins, Chair, Department of Art; Graham Cairns, Chair, Architecture + Interior Design; and Christopher Tanner, Interim Chair of the Department of Music.

The program in Interactive Media Studies also welcomes an Interim Managing Director in Murali Paranandi, who will be working closely with Glenn Platt (Director of the Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies) in taking their programs in IMS and Gaming to the next level.

The College of Creative Arts would like to thank other exceptional leaders who did far more then keep the trains running on time over the last several semesters: Associate Professor Mary Rogero (Interim Chair of Architecture + Interior Design, 2015-17), Robert Wicks (Acting Chair of Music, Spring 2017), Professor Tom Effler (Interim Chair of Art, 2016-17), and Jason Shaimon and Laura Stewart (Acting Co-Directors of the Art Museum).

Remarks Dean Mullenix, "despite so many transitions in unit management, we did not skip a beat! We have a lot of talent amongst the faculty and staff relative to leadership."