Appointment of Brian Kite as Dean and Vice Provost of Graduate Education

Dear Colleagues:

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Brian Kite as dean and vice provost of graduate education, effective on or before February 1, 2025.

A UCLA professor of directing since 2015, Kite currently serves as dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (TFT), where he previously served as interim dean, special academic senior associate dean and chair of the Department of Theater. His tenure has been marked by transformative leadership, including guiding the school through the pandemic; facilitating a multi-year strategic planning process; and driving focused fundraising initiatives that secured significant resources for infrastructure improvements, student support and the creation of a new endowed faculty chair to enhance academic excellence. He has worked with faculty, staff, students and alumni to introduce meaningful curricular innovations, implement significant changes to administrative infrastructure and systems, and strengthen TFT’s connections internally to the broader UCLA campus and externally to the entertainment industry.

Throughout his tenure at UCLA, Dean Kite has been an active and engaged member of the campus community, serving on the UCLA Graduate Council, TFT Faculty Executive Committee and the Chancellor’s Council on the Arts; the Professional School Deans Council, Faculty Forward Initiative Committee and Enrollment Planning Committee; and the Task Force on the Academic Mission of UCLA Campus Expansion, Campus Research Continuity Workgroup, as well as numerous search committees, program review committees and working groups.

Dean Kite is a chair emeritus of the Board of Governors of the LA Stage Alliance and holds an appointment as a visiting professor at the Shanghai Theatre Academy. Before joining the UCLA faculty, he was the producing artistic director of La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, where he directed numerous acclaimed productions. His directing credits include Les Misérables, American Idiot, Judgment at Nuremberg and Spring Awakening. Internationally, he directed Miss Saigon at the Macau International Music Festival and Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers at Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts, the first U.S. play performed at this prestigious venue. His contributions to theater have earned him the Joel Hirschhorn Award from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle and an Ovation Award for Best Direction.

I want to thank the search/advisory committee members for assembling an outstanding pool of candidates for this position and for their role in this important recruitment. Adriana Galván, dean and vice provost of undergraduate education and professor of psychology, served as the committee chair. Other members were:

• Robert Fink – professor of musicology and music industry; special academic senior associate dean, UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music
• Jennifer Jay – professor and equity, diversity and inclusion officer, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; professor, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
• Joseph A. Loo – professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and of biological chemistry
• Robert Chao Romero – associate professor, vice chair and director of graduate studies, César E. Chávez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies; associate professor of Asian American studies
• Caroline A. Streeter – associate professor of English and African American studies
• Ting-Ting Wu – vice chair and professor-in-residence, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology

I also want to recognize and express my gratitude to Susan Ettner for her dedicated service as dean of graduate education since July 2021, preceded by a year as interim dean and three years as associate dean in the Division of Graduate Education. Her longstanding commitment to graduate education will have an impact well beyond her tenure in these roles, and we look forward to her ongoing contributions to UCLA through her outstanding scholarship and teaching.

I am confident that Brian will provide outstanding leadership as dean and vice provost and will positively impact and advance graduate education at UCLA. Please join me in congratulating him and warmly welcoming him to his new post.

Sincerely,

Darnell Hunt
Interim Chancellor