Craig Dreeszen, Ph.D.

Craig Dreeszen is a former director of the Arts Extension Service, serving in that role for twelve years. After retirement from the University, he directed Dreeszen & Associates. He provided planning, evaluation, teaching, facilitation, and research for nonprofits, foundations, and public agencies. He is an author of books, articles, and courses on strategic planning, cultural planning, board development, arts education, and program evaluation. He earned his Ph.D. in regional planning with a focus on cultural planning, from UMass. Dr. Dreeszen helped the Arts Extension Service develop the University of Massachusetts’ first asynchronous distant-learning program, “Introduction to Strategic Planning.” He pioneered research to document the practice of community cultural planning and helped over forty communities develop cultural plans. With Barbara Schaffer Bacon he developed the Peer Advising Program that trained experienced arts managers to serve in consulting roles for their peers throughout much of the country. He taught arts management for the University of Massachusetts, primarily strategic planning, program evaluation, and board development. He concluded his teaching career as adjunct faculty at Brown University where he taught cultural policy.