Dear Members of the Yale Community,
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Evan Yionoulis as the Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean of David Geffen School of Drama at Yale and Artistic Director of Yale Repertory Theatre, effective July 1, 2026. Currently the Richard Rodgers Dean and Director of the Drama Division at The Juilliard School, Professor Yionoulis will return to Yale, where she began her career as a student and spent twenty years on the David Geffen School of Drama faculty.
A widely influential leader in acting education, Professor Yionoulis has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to the student and faculty experience. During her tenure at Juilliard, she has overseen and instituted a wide range of endeavors, including the transition to a tuition-free M.F.A., creation of a teacher development fellowship program, establishment of a film initiative to help graduating actors prepare for roles on film, and supervision of a multi-million-dollar renovation to foster greater connection within the drama community. Since beginning her role at Juilliard in 2018, she has continued to teach every year, remaining active in training and mentoring the next generation of theater professionals.
Professor Yionoulis is also known for her extensive work directing new and classic plays at prestigious theaters across the country, including Lincoln Center Theater, the Mark Taper Forum, and Dallas Theater Center, among many others. She has collaborated with lauded playwrights, directing Adrienne Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders, which was recognized with the Lortel Award for Best Revival, and the critically acclaimed world premiere of He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box. In 1998, she directed Richard Greenberg’s Three Days of Rain at Manhattan Theatre Club, for which she received an Obie Award, and in 2003 brought his The Violet Hour to Broadway.
In addition to directing works by others, Professor Yionoulis has written and directed her own original pieces for stage and film. With her brother, composer and lyricist Mike Yionoulis, she released the short film Lost and Found, which premiered at the Cleveland International Film Festival, and developed the multi-platform project Redhand Guitar.
Professor Yionoulis returns to Yale with a profound understanding of the David Geffen School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre community. From 1998 to 2003, she served as the Lloyd Richards Chair of the acting program, expanding both the curriculum and the faculty, and later held the role of professor in the practice of acting and directing. At Yale Rep, where she was a resident director from 1998 to 2018, she directed fourteen productions, including William Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and Richard II, Henrik Ibsen’s The Master Builder, and Guillermo Calderón’s Kiss. For more than three decades, she has taught on the faculty of Yale Summer Session, most recently offering master classes at the Yale Summer Conservatory for Actors. A highly committed teacher and mentor, she remains in touch with many of her former Yale students, who have gone on to accomplished careers in theater.
A graduate of David Geffen School of Drama’s directing program, Professor Yionoulis credits her training as formative to her understanding of the power of theater and the importance of ensuring that the next generation of theater artists, managers, and technicians have opportunities to develop their craft, expand their imaginations, sharpen their points of view, and increase their capacity to collaborate. Her experience as an undergraduate in Yale College—where she majored in literature with theater studies, participated in the Yale Dramatic Association, and became a founding member of Yale Musical Theater—profoundly influenced her career path. Her first full-length directing project took place in the Davenport College dining hall.
Professor Yionoulis has received numerous honors and recognitions, including a fellowship, a works-in-progress grant, and a statue award from the Princess Grace Foundation. In service to the theater community, she has participated in curriculum reviews for major B.F.A. programs across the country and offered workshops on plays by William Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen, Bertolt Brecht, and Suzan-Lori Parks, among others. She has also served as an adjudicator on award and program selection panels for the Tony Awards, the Obie Awards, the National Endowment for the Arts, Fulbright grants, the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, and more. Professor Yionoulis has also held numerous leadership roles with the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and served as the organization’s president from 2019 to 2025. Her book Listening and Talking: A Pathway to Acting was published in 2023 by Methuen Drama.
In returning to New Haven, Professor Yionoulis will join her husband, Donald Holder, professor in the practice of design at David Geffen School of Drama and Tony Award-winning lighting designer. Together, they have two adult children and enjoy traveling and exploring the rich history and culture of other countries.
As we welcome Professor Yionoulis, we also recognize Dean James Bundy for his remarkable dedication to the David Geffen School of Drama and Yale Rep communities for more than two decades. His exceptional leadership has helped cement their legacies as world-class institutions committed to access, inclusion, and excellence. We are grateful that he will remain on the faculty and continue to teach at Yale. We also thank the search advisory committee, chaired by Professor Marc Robinson with support from Vice Provost Emily Bakemeier, and the many faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends who provided input on the qualities they sought in the next dean and artistic director.
We are delighted to welcome such a pathbreaking artist and visionary leader back home to Yale, and we look forward to welcoming Professor Yionoulis to New Haven in the coming weeks to meet with David Geffen School of Drama colleagues. In the meantime, please join us in congratulating Professor Yionoulis and celebrating the incredible impact of David Geffen School of Drama and Yale Rep, which will continue to thrive under her leadership.
Sincerely,
Maurie McInnis
President
Professor of the History of Art
Scott Strobel
Provost
Henry Ford II Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry