Biography
Jeffery Scott Elwell is Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tennessee - Chattanooga and Professor of Theatre. Prior to that, he served as Provost and Professor of Communication and Dramatic Arts at Auburn University Montgomery from 2010-2012. He was Professor and Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication at East Carolina University from 2004-2010. He was Professor and Chair of the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Executive Artistic Director of the Nebraska Repertory Theatre from 1999-2004. He served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Theatre and Director of the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center at Marshall University (1996-99), and Professor and Director of Theatre at Mississippi State University (1989-96). He received his Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University in 1986 and has a Mississippi Arts Commission Playwriting Fellowship, a Nebraska Arts Council Individual Artists Fellowship, a Tennessee Williams Scholarship, and an NEH Summer Seminar Fellowship. He has received $733,377 in grants and fellowships. Professional theatres in Chicago, Los Angeles, Memphis, New Orleans, and New York as well as Australia, Canada, Poland, and Sweden have produced his plays.
He currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the International Association of Fine Arts Deans (ICFAD). In the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) he has served as the Conference Planner (1999, Toronto), on Conference Planning Committees, and as Chair of the ATHE Playwrights Program. He was a member of the board of directors of the National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST) and served on the Nominations Committee. In the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival (KC/ACTF) he has served as Region IV Playwriting Awards Committee Chair, Vice-Chair, and a member of the Executive Committee. In the Southeastern Theatre Conference he served as Chair and Vice-Chair of the SETC Playwriting Committee, of the SETC New Play Project, and as a member of the Editorial Board of Southern Theatre.
