Jill Beck
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Jill Beck (born 1949) is an American dancer, scholar, administrator and educator. She is the 15th and current president of Lawrence University.
A native of Worcester, Massachusetts, Jill Beck received her B.A. in philosophy and art history from Clark University, an M.A. in history and music from McGill University, and the Ph.D. in theatre history and criticism from the City University of New York.
As dean of the School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) from 1995 to 2003, she instituted a strategic planning process that advanced both the vitality and the visibility of the school, and led a highly successful capital campaign that made significant contributions to the school's endowment, facilities, educational mission, and outreach activities. Under her leadership, the school was named the Claire Trevor School of the Arts and undergraduate applications increased by more than 70 percent over four years.
During her tenure as dean, Dr. Beck founded the ArtsBridge America outreach program in art education and established the da Vinci Research Center for Learning Through the Arts, an interdisciplinary center for research focused on learning across disciplines.
ArtsBridge America has been recognized as a national model for the advancement of educational arts partnerships between universities and the K-12 community. The program offers hands-on experiences in the arts to school-age children, placing university students in K-12 classrooms as instructors and mentors. Under Dr. Beck's direction, ArtsBridge grew from a limited pilot program in California involving seven students in 1996 to a nationwide effort involving nearly 1,000 university students at 17 institutions in nine states.
A nationally recognized authority on arts education, she is both a scholar and a practitioner of dance and choreography and has written extensively in the fields of dance history, theory, repertory, and technique as well as directed ballet and modern dance repertory. In addition to holding an appointment as professor of dance at UCI, she has taught at the City College of New York and The Juilliard School, among others.
As teacher and administrator, Dr. Beck has been a leader in efforts to develop innovative means to improve teaching and learning. In 2000, she co-chaired an international conference titled "Sciences for the Arts: Building a Coalition for Arts Education" that brought psychological and medical researchers together with artists and art educators, one of several ways in which she has worked to establish linkages between science and engineering and the arts.
A founding member of the Alliance of Dance Notation Educators, she is active in a number of professional organizations and as a participant in scholarly meetings and publications. She is a recipient of the Disney Corporation's Jack Linquist Award for Innovation, given in recognition of ArtsBridge's creative approach to social problems; the American Red Cross's Clara Barton Award for humanitarian service in the arts; and the University of California, Irvine, Medal, the university's highest honor, for "visionary leadership in building community."
Dr. Beck is married to Robert J. Beck, Ph.D., a visiting professor of education at Lawrence University.
| Preceded by: Richard Warch |
President of Lawrence University | Succeeded by: -- |
