Dr. Gina L. Grandi (she/her) is an assistant professor and the coordinator of the General Theatre area in the theatre and dance department at Appalachian State University. In her former life, she was a public school teacher in San Francisco and a teaching artist and arts administrator in New York.

Gina serves as an artistic associate and the resident dramaturg for NYU’s New Plays for Young Audiences series. She served as first Artistic Director and then Literary Manager and Dramaturg for The Bechdel Group (the theatre company she co-founded) from 2014 - 2024.

In her pre-university life, Gina was a full-time public school teacher in San Francisco for thirteen years, teaching both 5th Grade and High School Theatre and Humanities. For ten years in New York, she worked as a teaching artist, teacher mentor, and non-profit program director, working to bring theatre programs to high schools without existing arts programs. She continues to facilitate professional development work with K-12 teachers, specifically around arts integration and student centered pedagogy and classroom practices.

Other fun info: Gina is a mask and puppet designer and her short fiction has been featured in Cicada, Apex Magazine, Gold Fever Press, and 100wordstory.org.

Gina has a BA from Vassar College, an MA and PhD from New York University, and an extensive finger puppet collection.