GRANVILLE, Ohio—Denison University has announced that two new members have been elected to its Board of Trustees, effective July 1, 2012. The new trustees are Susan Booth, the artistic director of the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta and a member of the Denison class of 1985, and Mark Heckmann, a special projects manager in sustainable development for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and a member of the Denison class of 2011.
Booth joined the Alliance Theatre in 2001. Since then, she has initiated the Collision Project for teens and the Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition. Booth created a number of collaborative and commercial production partnerships, including The Color Purple; Bring It On: The Musical; and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. As a director, she has worked nationally at theatres including Goodman, La Jolla Playhouse, New York Stage and Film, and many others. Booth holds degrees from Denison and Northwestern universities and was a fellow of the National Critics Institute and the Kemper Foundation. She has held teaching positions at Northwestern and DePaul universities, and currently serves as an adjunct faculty member at Emory University. She is the immediate past president of the board of directors for Theatre Communications Group, the national service organization for the field and is on the advisory committee of the Steinberg Charitable Trust in New York, and she serves on the board of the Metro Atlanta Arts and Culture Coalition.
Elected for a two-year term as a representative for the student body and recent graduates, Heckmann is currently employed by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and is attending the H. John Heinz III College of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University. He is enrolled in the Master of Science in Public Policy and Management program and anticipates graduation in the spring of 2013. Heckmann is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the national academic honorary, and received the President’s Medal at Denison, the college’s highest student honor for which the preeminent criteria are academic achievement and the embodiment of a combination of service to the community, contribution to the arts, enlargement of the community's global perspective, athletic fitness and achievement, leadership ability and contribution to community discourse.
“Susan Booth and Mark Heckmann both add to the exceptional fund of experience and insight represented in the Denison Board of Trustees,” said Denison University President Dale T. Knobel. “Booth’s national leadership in the performing arts and Heckman's record of service on campus and as a recent Denison graduate will serve the college well as we plan the next steps in Denison’s future.”
About Denison:
Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.
