In addition to her work at PlayPenn, Michele Volansky is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University. She has worked on nearly two hundred new and established plays in her professional career and has served on the artistic staffs at Actors Theatre of Louisville (1992-95), Steppenwolf Theatre Company (1995-2000) and Philadelphia Theatre Company (2000-2004).   Volansky has also served as dramaturg for new works at Azuka Theatre, Arden Theatre Company, 1812 Productions as well as at Merrimack Rep and South Coast Rep, among others.  She has served as an artistic consultant, a reader for a host of other conferences/awards/programs and is the 1999 inaugural co-recipient of the Elliot Hayes Award for Dramaturgy.  She is a past president of LMDA, the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (2002-2004). Her book on playwriting and collaboration with Bruce Graham entitled The Collaborative Playwright was published in March, 2007 by Heinemann Press. She holds a B.A. in English from Washington College (where she served as Associate Professor of Theatre), an M.A. from Villanova University and a PhD from the University of Hull (England); her dissertation explores the politics and advocacy of the critics Kenneth Tynan and Frank Rich.