Liz Engelman is the head of the Playwriting/Directing area at UT Austin. She splits her year between Austin and Ely, MN, where is the founder and director of Tofte Lake Center at Norm’s Fish Camp, a creative retreat in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. Before moving to Austin, was the Alumnae Relations Coordinator of Hedgebrook, a retreat for women writers on Whidbey Island, WA. Liz has served as the Resident Dramaturg at Mixed Blood Theatre, as the Literary Director of the McCarter Theatre, the Director of New Play Development at ACT Theatre in Seattle, Washington, Literary Manager/Dramaturg at Seattle’s Intiman Theatre, and as Assistant Literary Manager at Actors Theatre of Louisville. She has worked on the development of new plays at The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, ASK Theatre Projects, New York Theatre Workshop, the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, South Coast Rep, Denver Center, and Florida Stage. She has directed new plays at The Illusion Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, and Carleton College. Liz has been a guest at Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Puget Sound, Cornish College of the Arts, and has taught playwriting at Freehold Studio Theatre Lab and The Playwrights' Center. She studied dramaturgy and new play development at Brown and Columbia universities, where she received her BA and MFA in theatre and dramaturgy, respectively. Liz is the co-editor with Michael Bigelow Dixon of several collections of plays, and a new book on playwriting exercises, and of two volumes of monologues with Tori Haring-Smith. Liz has served as President and Board Chair of LMDA, and currently serves on the board. She also serves on the Advisory Board of the National New Play Network and is a member of the New Project Group of ITI. She has written articles published in Theatre Topics and Theatre Forum.