Dana Whitco

Dana Whitco directs the Tisch Initiative for Creative Research (TCR) at NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, serving as the first research officer in the school’s 60-year history. She is also the Founding Director of the Center for Creative Research (Graduate School of Arts & Science, New York University) and Co-Founder of Positive Feedback, NYC's first inter-institutional consortium dedicated to supporting collaborations between artists and scientists working on issues of climate change. Previous appointments in the performing arts include the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Dance Project (New England Foundation for the Arts) and Center Theater Group (Mark Taper Forum/Ahmanson Theater/Kirk Douglas Theater) in Los Angeles where she also completed graduate studies in Dance at University of California, Los Angeles.

Dana is a frequent advisor and panelist for grant-making programs in New York City and across the country (including the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s inaugural Vacheron Constantin Residency in 2025), and is a regular presenter at professional conferences in the US and abroad. She has taught dance and dance-related subjects at NYU, UCLA, Loyola Marymount University and Temple University among others, and developed the first creative research methods course for undergraduates at Tisch. She is an NYU Fulbright Mentor, has served on the boards of Movement Research and Culturebot, and is the current Board Chair of Bebe Miller Company. Since learning to surf in her 30’s, she has found bliss riding waves from Sandy Hook to Matapalo.