DAN CARTER recently stepped down as director after 22 years leading the Penn State theatre program, He was previously associate dean of the School of Theatre at the Florida State University and chair of the Department of Theatre at Illinois State University, where he also served as producing director of the Illinois Shakespeare Festival.

Dan worked extensively as actor, stage manager, director, and fight choreographer before joining the ranks of academe. As an actor, he worked with many notables, including sharing the stage with Al Pacino, Martin Sheen, Farrah Fawcett, Orson Bean, Earl Holliman, and Judith Ivey, and the screen with Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Ed Harris, Lloyd Bridges, Brian Keith, Jack Elam, and Dom DeLuise. He was stage manager of the New York revival of Dames at Sea.

Dan served as president of both the National Theatre Conference and the National Association of Schools of Theatre, which he also served for ten years on the Commission on Accreditation including three years as chair . He served Actors’ Equity Association for four years as area liaison from the State of Florida. He is a recipient of the Illinois State University Alumni Achievement Award and is a member of the Rock Valley College Hall of Fame. In 2008, he was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Theatre and is currently Dean-Elect of that body.