Valerie Flower is Professor and Chair of Theatre at Eastern University.  Her credentials include an MA in Directing and Dramaturgy from Miami University of Ohio and a Tufts University Ph.D. in Theatre History, Literature and Criticism.  She is the recipient of several Certificates of Merit from The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in the areas of stage direction and costume design.  She continues to make scholarly and artistic contributions through publications and presentations on the arts and transformation at national and international conferences including The Association for Theatre in Higher Education and The Philadelphia Theatre Research Symposium. Her direction of Dead Man Walking received Pennsylvania’s Justice Award for theatre activism and her original play, Between Two Chairs, received the Lily Foundation Grant for new play development in theatre and Alzheimer’s research.  She directed and gave leadership to the development of a Medical Arts and Humanities Program at The Hershey Penn State School of Medicine and its Grand Rounds Readers Theatre Project on medical ethics.  Her devised work has been staged at theatres and festivals including Open Stage of Harrisburg, Touchstone Theatre Ensemble, The Brick Theatre, and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Valerie is an adjudicator for The Core Writers Program at the The Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, MN and the Irene Ryan Scholarship for KCACTF, Region 2.  In addition to teaching on the St. Davids campus, Valerie teaches playwriting at the State Correctional Institution at Chester, a medium security prison, and the site of Eastern University’s Prison Education Program.