Contact: Judy IannacconeOctober 8, 2008
Director, Communications For Immediate Release
Phone: (714) 480-7503
E-mail:
Rancho Santiago Community College District Appoints
NewDean of Fine and Performing Arts at Santa AnaCollege
(Santa Ana)—Rancho Santiago Community College District has appointed Sylvia Turner as dean of fine and performing arts at Santa AnaCollege. In this role, Turner is responsible for the leadership of the division that includes art, dance, journalism, music, speech, television/video, and theatre arts.
Since 2001, Turner served as the college’s associate dean of fine and performing arts. In that role, she served on the team that oversaw the construction of the college’s new DigitalMediaCenter, the renovation of the art building, and the revision of more than 250 courses. She also worked with faculty in the development and implementation of new certificatesin digital media arts, web design, entertainment lighting, a new associate degree in digital media arts, and revision of the 3D animation certificate.
Under her leadership as dance department chair at Santa AnaCollege from 1981 to 2000, it gained statewide recognition for excellence in instruction, high quality productions and successful, well-trained students.
Turner, a resident of Orange and an award-winning choreographer and educator, has been active in concert dance, professional theater, and arts organizations for many years. She has performed professionally in the United States and Japan, is a former member of the Ann Arbor Dance Theater and the Gloria Newman Dance Company, and co-founded Connect 3, a multimedia dance ensemble. In addition to choreographing for nationally competitive skaters, her choreography credits include theatrical productions for South Coast Repertory and Disneyland’s “The Lion King Parade and Street Show.”
She holds a B.A. from AntiochCollege and an M.A. from the University of Chicago. Currently on the Arts Orange County Board of Directors, she has also served on the South Coast Repertory Education and Outreach Committee, the Santa Ana Arts Education Forum, the Santa Ana Council for Arts and Culture, the OrangeCountyHigh School of the Arts Outreach Committee, and the Bowers Kidseum Advisory Committee.
About the Rancho Santiago Community College District
The mission of the Rancho Santiago Community College District (RSCCD) is to respond to the educational needs of an ever-changing community and to provide programs and services that reflect academic excellence. Santa Ana College and Santiago Canyon College are public community colleges of RSCCD, which serve the residents of Anaheim Hills, East Garden Grove, Irvine, Orange, Santa Ana, Tustin and Villa Park. Both colleges provide education for academic transfer and careers, courses for personal and professional development, customized training for business and industry, and programs to train nurses, firefighters and law enforcement personnel.
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