Kate Duffly is a scholar-director and community-based theatre artist with a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Her teaching and research interests include socially engaged and community-based theatre, 20th and 21st century American theatre, race theory and performance, acting, and directing. Kate has published articles in TDR, Theatre Topics, Theatre Survey, and Theatre Annual. In addition to her own directorial and devised performance work, Kate has worked with Cornerstone Theater, Lunatique Fantastique, Touchable Stories, and Wise Fool Community Arts. In 2016, Kate received a grant from Oregon’s Regional Arts and Culture Council to create a community-based theatre project with community organization Western States Center and collaborator Roberta Hunte (Portland State University) about reproductive justice, titled We Are BRAVE. Kate is the president of the board for Theatre Diaspora, Oregon’s only professional Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) theatre company. She is also on the board of MediaRites, a “production organization based in Portland, Oregon, dedicated to telling the stories of diverse cultures and giving voice to the unheard through the arts, education and media projects.” Prior to her position as Assistant Professor of Theatre at Reed, Kate taught as lecturer at UC Berkeley and California College of Arts.

Dr. Roberta Hunte is an Assistant Professor at Portland State University’s School of Social Work. She received her M.S. in Conflict Resolution from PSU, and her doctorate from the University of Manitoba in Peace and Conflict Studies. She is affiliate faculty in Women,  Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Black Studies. Hunte is a community engaged Black feminist scholar, whose academic interests include sexual and reproductive justice, cultural work for social change, and how Black, Indigenous, and People of Color navigate institutions: particularly construction, maternal healthcare, and higher education. Her creative critical scholarship includes the theatre piece “My Walk Has Never Been Average,” and short film “Sista in the Brotherhood,” both informed by her research with Black tradeswomen and devised theater piece entitled “We are BRAVE,” based on reproductive stories from people of color and transgender people.