Dr. Peggy Shannon
The Nerman Family President
Dr. Shannon holds a PhD in drama from Royal Holloway, University of London; a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre from the University of Washington, Seattle; and a Bachelor’s with Honors in Theatre from the University of California, Riverside.
Over the past two and a half decades, Dr. Shannon has served as a tenured professor of theatre and as a university administrator. Her administrative appointments have included Associate Vice Provost at the University of California, Davis; Dean of the College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts at San Diego State University; Chair of the School of Performance at Toronto Metropolitan University; President of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and currently is The Nerman Family President of the Kansas City Art Institute.
From 2011- 2013, Dr. Shannon served as the Principal Investigator of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Partnership Development Grant to study gender and war. This study, “Women and War: A Comparison Between Canada and Greece”, involved partners in Canada, the USA, and Greece. From 2014 - 2017, this research grew into to a global initiative, The Women & War Project, with ten participating global universities and arts centres and sixty researchers and artists who participated on varying levels. From 2017 through 2023, Dr. Shannon served as the Principal Investigator and Producer of The Crossing Borders Project, an arts and humanities initiative that explored identity, migration, and trans-nationalism. The work was presented in six countries.
Dr. Shannon served as a tenured full professor for over two decades. She led Summer Abroad programs to Greece for twenty-two years, presented research in partnership with the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Fulbright Foundation in Greece, and has been recognized by the Greek Ministers of Education and of Culture. She has been honored by the Mayors of Poros, Hydra, and Delphi, the former United States Ambassador to Greece (Daniel Speckhard), and the former Canadian Ambassador to Greece (Robert Peck).
Dr. Shannon’s service has included sitting on juries, grant and abstract selection committees for The Global Undergraduate Awards (Ireland), California Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts, the USA Government’s Fund for Improving Postsecondary Education, and serving as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Canadian Military and Veteran Health. She worked closely with consuls general, mayors, ambassadors, state senators, government ministers, and business and arts leaders to facilitate and maintain international alliances in many countries and represented various universities on trade and educational missions.
Awards include the Queen’s Jubilee Medal (2022) for excellence in arts education; the King Charles III Coronation Medal (2024) for her excellence in arts education; her selection as a Fulbright Senior Specialist; an Arts Leadership Award from the Arts & Business Council of Northern California; Outstanding Artist and Arts Education Leader from the California Educators for Theatre Alliance (CETA); and Top 50 Most Important People (Comstocks Business Magazine). She has directed and produced over 100 plays, musicals, and plays for the radio at professional theatres and national public radio.