Mary Bitel

Mary Bitel, B.F.A., M.S.W., Ph.D., L.C.S.W., is an Associate Arts Professor at Tisch and was the founding chair of the BFA in Collaborative Arts. She holds a B.F.A. in theatre from Wayne State University, an M.S.W. with a concentration in group work from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College and a Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Mary teaches the integration of the arts with the theories, skills and dynamics of group work and social arts practice. She is also an acting teacher at Tisch where she teaches Advanced Acting: Realism and Beyond, as well as a course on Shakespeare. She is a senior faculty member in Tisch’s International Theatre Workshop, Amsterdam, having taught script analysis in that program since 1998. Prior to taking her faculty position at Tisch, Mary worked professionally as an actor, was Director of GirlSpace, a community-based after school program serving adolescents and teens in NYC, and for a number of years was a guest lecturer at Silberman School of Social Work. Mary is a Co-Director of the university-wide Arts & Health at NYU initiative and is a member of Actors Equity and the International Association for the Advancement of Social Work with Groups.