Dean Yohnk Bio

Dean, College of Arts and Humanities
Contact: 262-595-2188 / yohnk@uwp.edu
Office: Communication Arts 262

Position : Professor (tenured)

Education : BA - Viterbo University (Theatre and English Education); MA / Ph.D. - Bowling Green State University (Directing / Theatre Education).

Post-Doctoral Certificates: Harvard University Management Development Program (Harvard MDP), Society for College and University Planning Program (SCUP), American Associate of College and University (AACU) Arts and Humanities Leadership and Promotion Program, National Council on Race and Ethnicity (NCORE) Diversity Leadership training.

Courses currently taught at UW-Parkside: Multicultural Theatre in America, Gender and Sexuality on Stage and Screen, Special Theatre Seminars.

Professional Bio: Dean has been a professional theatre artist, educator, and administrator for over 20 years.   He has taught a wide variety of theatre courses and served as a department chair and development director at UW-Parkside and Viterbo University.  Under Dean's leadership, The UW-ParksideTheatre Arts Department received the University of Wisconsin Board of Regent's Teaching Excellence Award for Outstanding Academic Department in 2009. In 2010 Dean was awarded the coveted Kennedy Center's American College Theatre Festival Gold Medallion Award for outstanding contributions to the development of educational theatre at the regional and national level. 

In addition to directing and designing over 100 college and university theatre productions, he has also worked extensively as a professional actor, director, designer, educator, and theatre administrator at such regional professional theatres as The Guthrie Theatre (Minneapolis), Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The Huron Playhouse (Ohio), The Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, The Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, The Peninsula Players Theatre (Wisconsin), and The Racine Theatre Guild. He has served since 1992 on the regional executive committee of the Kennedy Center's American College Theatre Festival (ACTF) and has been the Regional Playwriting Program Chair. Dean is also the Past President of the Alliance for Wisconsin Theatre Education and the Wisconsin Council of Theatre Chairs. Dean continues to teach and direct in the Theatre Arts Department while serving as the Dean of the newly-created College of Arts and Humanities.   As Dean, he is active with the Racine Arts Council, Arts Wisconsin Advocacy Group, the Wisconsin Arts Council, and  the Wisconsin Humanities Council.