Tiffany Ana López
Dr. Tiffany Ana López is the Claire Trevor Dean of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts. A nationally recognized leader in higher education, Dr. López has dedicated her career to advancing the arts through collaborative approaches that foster transformative learning environments and cultivate future leaders. She previously served as a vice provost at Arizona State University, helping to advance strategy and strengthen engagement of key initiatives. She was also director of ASU’s School of Film, Dance and Theater in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.
Under her leadership, the film program expanded and diversified its curriculum, faculty, and student body in preparation for launching as the Sidney Poitier New American Film School. Theater and dance programs expanded and enriched with initiatives such as the “Performance in the Borderlands” cultural and performing arts series, the Sol Motion Collective Workshops and Festival on Hip-Hop Arts, and the Dance on Camera Student Film Festival. She also served as senior advisor to the Dean of the Herberger Institute on practices focused on access and community engagement. Her teaching included an inaugural course on the life and legacy of Sidney Poitier and a hybrid course with Liz Lerman exploring embodied knowledge and creative inquiry.
A first-generation college student, Dr. López earned her Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her B.A. from California State University, Sacramento, after transferring from California community colleges. She spent 21 years teaching as a tenured professor at the University of California, Riverside, where she led Latine-focused initiatives, public programming, and community partnerships as the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and as Professor of Theatre, Film and Digital Production and Professor of English. She also worked with faculty in the School of Medicine as a co-principal investigator on a National Endowment for the Humanities grant exploring medical narratives and graphic medicine with Dr. Juliet McMullin.
Dr. López has participated in numerous leadership programs and academic councils, including the International Council of Fine Arts Deans; ASU Advanced Leadership Institute; ASU Georgetown Academy for Innovation in Leadership in Higher Education; University of California Systemwide CORO Leadership Collaborative; Executive Leadership Academy of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education; and the National Association for Chief Diversity Officers in Higher Education.
Her recognitions include a JPMorgan Chase Community ICON Nomination (2025); being named one of Orange Coast Magazine’s “Kick Ass Women” leaders of Orange County (2023); Arizona’s 48 Most Intriguing Women (2022); the ASU Faculty Women’s Association Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award (2019); Hispanic Lifestyle Latina of Influence (2015); Fulbright Scholar (2004); and fellowships and grants from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Rockefeller Foundation.
A theater scholar and dramaturge, Dr. López explores how storytelling and the arts help individuals and communities process trauma and create pathways for transformation and social impact. She has more than two decades of experience producing scholarly and creative content for regional theaters including Center Theatre Group (P.L.A.Y. – Performing for Los Angeles Youth) and Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Illuminations).
Her writing appears in several publications, including Encuentro – Latinx Performance for the New American Theater (2019); The Cambridge Guide to U.S. Latina/o Literature (2016); Performing the U.S. Latina and Latino Borderlands (2011); and Theatre Journal (2000). She served as editor for Chicana/Latina Studies: A Journal of MALCS / Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (2005–2012) and the coming-of-age anthology Growing Up Chicana/o (1993), which was featured in the Playbill for John Leguizamo’s Latin History for Morons.
As a literary and production dramaturge, she has worked with Southwest Shakespeare Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Artists Repertory Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum/Center Theatre Group, Arizona Theatre Company, Cornerstone Theater Company, The Los Angeles Theatre Center, CASA 0101, and Breath of Fire Latina Theater Ensemble. Productions include “La Ruta” by Isaac Gomez; “Mother Road” by Octavio Solis; “Romeo and Juliet”; “Mojada: A Mexica Medea” by Luis Alfaro; and “Native Gardens” by Karen Zacarias. She has also adapted the writings of Tomás Rivera for the stage. She is currently writing on the Broadway musical Real Women Have Curves by Josefina Lopez.
Dr. López is founding director of the Latina/o Play Project at the Barbara and Art Culver Center for the Arts in Riverside, California, and a founding member of the Latino Theater Alliance of Los Angeles, the National Latinx Theater Commons, and the Latinx Literature Society for the American Literature Association.
She is an active speaker on the transformative power of the arts and public higher education. She currently serves on the boards of the Irvine Barclay Theater and Arts Orange County, and is an Ex-Officio Trustee of the University of California, Irvine and special advisor to the UCI-OC Alliance.
