Prior to joining NYU, Dean Campbell was executive director of the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs under Mayor’s Koch and Dinkins. She has held the voluntary public positions of Chair of the New York State Council on the Arts and Vice-Chair of President Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and sits on the boards of The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and The Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival. Dean Campbell earned her B.A. degree in English literature from Swarthmore College, an M.A. in art history from Syracuse University, and a Ph.D. in humanities, also from Syracuse.