Susan Russell, Professor Emerita at The Pennsylvania State University, was the director and
co-founder of The Center for Pedagogy in Arts and Design in The College of Arts and
Architecture, and for 17 years, Dr. Russell, taught graduate and undergraduate
literature/criticism, Musical Theatre History, and Playwriting, and led the University community in
conversations about Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. She received her PhD in Theatre Studies
from Florida State University’s School of Theatre in 2007, her Master of Arts degree from
Florida State University in 2003, and her BA in Theatre from St. Andrews Presbyterian College
in Laurinburg, NC in 1979. Between her education pursuits, she experienced a twenty-five-year
career as a professional actor on and off-Broadway, and as a playwright, her works have been
produced by Emerging Artists Theatre and Lincoln Center in New York City, and at Penn State
University. In 2007, Dr. Russell created Cultural Conversations, and this unique “community
collaboration” used music, theatre, dance, storytelling, and visual arts to help young people talk
about the social issues of their time. As a practical application of her work in Cultural
Conversations, Dr. Russell has written Body Language: Stop the Violence/Start the
Conversation, and Body Language: Cultural Conversations Reaching Out and Reaching In, and
these texts were supplied free of charge to school systems and community organizations. Dr.
Russell was honored in 2012 with the Penn State Commission for Women's Faculty Award for
her work on women's rights, in 2013 she was selected as one of the Faces of Penn State, and
in 2014, Russell was appointed as the 2014-2015 Penn State Laureate. During her Laureate
year, Dr. Russell brought all the Penn State campuses together in an ongoing conversation
about Dignity, and in 2017, Dr. Russell was awarded a fellowship with PSU’s Teaching and
Learning with Technology organization where she created The Moral Moments Project.
Alongside a TLT team of instructional designers and project managers led by Dr. Crystal
Ramsay, Assistant Director of Innovation at TLT, the course found a research home in CPAD
and an academic home in the College of Arts and Architecture. The course is taught across
Penn State Commonwealth campuses and is utilized by a diverse community of disciplines,
students, and instructors. Dr. Russell retired from PSU in 2022. https://moralmoments.psu.edu/