People Category: Emeritus

Photo of Ingrid Sonnichsen, a woman with brown hair, wearing a black blouse and holding a pair of glasses in her hand.

Ingrid Sonnichsen

Associate Professor Emeritus

An actress for over fifty years, Ms. Sonnichsen has worked on Broadway (Best Friend), Off-Broadway (Dylan, Measure for Measure) and in numerous regional theaters nationwide which include the Guthrie Theater, the Mark Taper Forum, Long Wharf, Huntington Theatre Company, ART, the Charles Theatre, and Ford’s Theatre.

She has appeared in national commercials, taught acting in Japan, directed in South Africa  (WE and Them), and has been teaching acting at Carnegie Mellon since 1995.  She taught previously at Harvard, Northeastern University and Colby-Sawyer in New London, NH.

In 1995,  while teaching acting at Harvard she was awarded a Certificate for Distinction in Teaching and in 2012, Ms. Sonnichsen received the College of Fine Arts Award for Distinguished Teaching from Carnegie Mellon.

Ms. Sonnichsen co-authored two books: Buy This Book, It’s Deductible: A Guide to Performer’s Taxes  and The Source, (a guide for theater professionals in the New England region.)  She was a member of the Shear Madness companies in Boston, Pittsburgh and at the Kennedy Center for ten years.   Locally she has appeared in Comedy of Errors at the Pittsburgh Public, The Credeaux Canvas at the City Theatre,  Major Barbara, The Deadand Hedda Gablerfor the Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, and The Crucible and Le Grand Meaulnes for Quantum Theater.

As a director, Ms. Sonnichsen has directed The Small Room at the Top of the Stairs, Inky, the Pink Unicorn, and Byhalia, Mississippi for Carnegie Stage / Off the Wall, in Carnegie, Pa.  She’s directed ten Senior NY/LA Showcases for CMU, the last being in 2020.

Ms. Sonnichsen teaches Audition Technique for artsBridge, and represents Actors Equity as the Pittsburgh Liaison Committee Chair.

Photo of Anne Mundell, a woman with brown hair wearing a dark maroon jacket, crossing her arms, standing in the wings of a theater.

Anne Mundell

Professor Emeritus

Anne Mundell was a Professor of Scene Design, teaching classes such as Scene Designs One and Two, Scene Design Skills, Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Design Thesis.

Mundell also served as Director of Growing Theater Outreach, a program that paired Carnegie Mellon student mentors with Fifth Graders from an at-risk population as they write and produce a play over the course of eight months. She was one of the founding partners of The Roboceptionist project, an internationally recognized collaboration designed to make robots more approachable by giving them personalities and making them part of everyday life. One of her collaborative Roboceptionist projects, a chatbot named Athina, opened as part of a permanent collection called “Roboworld” at the Carnegie Science Center.

In 2007, Mundell won the Henry Hornbostle Teaching Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching and advising in the College of Fine Arts. She recently traveled to Prague with a delegation of students and faculty to participate in the Prague Quadrenialle, working with renowned scenographer, Pamela Howard on Birdwall, among other projects. She also worked to develop a summer experience for CMU students in Edinburgh, Scotland that ran successfully for three years.

She continues her professional work as a scene designer and has designed and painted scenery for hundreds of projects and numerous venues throughout the United States. She occasionally designs costumes and museum exhibitions. She’s been pleased to employ many students as assistants. Anne has served on the Boards of Directors of The Murals Project (Marilyn G. Rabb Foundation) and Pittsburgh’s City Theatre Company.

Photo of Dan Martin, a tall white man with white hair and beard, wearing glasses and a dark suit and purple tie.

Dan Martin

Professor Emeritus

Dan Martin joined the Carnegie Mellon faculty in 1992 to direct the Master of Arts Management (MAM) Program, a collaboration of the College of Fine Arts and Heinz College focused on providing graduate-level education in the leadership of not-for-profit arts, culture, and heritage institutions.

In the mid 90s, as Internet technology was expanding, Martin founded the Center for Arts Management and Technology (CAMT) devoted to applied research on the implementation of computer and information technology in the arts management process.  CAMT, in partnership with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, developed the first Internet-based grant application system that remains in wide use today by many state arts agencies and private foundations. In 2004, he established the Master of Entertainment Industry Management (MEIM) Program, an innovative academic program that includes a year of educational and practical work in Los Angeles, offering management education for screen-based creative industries.

Most recently, Martin served as the 12th Dean of the College of Fine Arts (2010 to 2021), supporting the growth, stability, and increasing prominence and impact of the schools of Architecture, Art, Design, Drama and Music.

Martin has consulted with cultural organizations in strategic planning, information technology, not-for-profit governance and finance management. He has presented workshops and master classes in arts management, organizational structure, information technology, board development and other topics at universities and for arts service organizations in the United States, Canada, Germany, Spain, Austria, Greece, and Italy.

Martin has served on the faculty of the Management and Development of Cultural and Artistic Organizations (GIOCA) Program in the School of Economics at the University of Bologna (Italy); the advisory board of the Fitzcarraldo Foundation, an arts management training and consulting center in Turin, Italy; and the European Summer Academy for Cultural Management in Salzburg, Austria.  He has contributed his time and energy to the advisory or steering committees of several professional and research institutions, including the Center for Arts and Culture, Americans for the Arts, and the Arts, Technology and Intellectual Property project of the American Assembly at Columbia University.

Martin has authored a number of reports, magazine articles and journal articles on arts management and related issues, and is co-author, with Francois Colbert of HEC/Montreal, of Marketing Planning for Culture and the Arts: Fundamental Principles and Practices for Building an Effective Marketing Campaign, published in fall 2008.

Prior to joining the academic community in 1989 as director of the Arts Management Program at The University of Akron, Martin spent 14 years in not-for-profit professional and educational theatre administration: managing director of CSC Repertory (New York City), managing director of Virginia Stage Company (Norfolk), marketing director of the Walnut Street Theatre Company (Philadelphia), and marketing director/ticket office manager of the University Theatre, Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo). He also has spent several years with summer theatre operations in Michigan, New Hampshire and Minnesota. While in New York City, he worked in the Theatre Program Office of FEDAPT (Foundation for the Extension and Development of the American Professional Theatre) and with the Richard Morse Mime Theatre. During the summers of 1994 and 1995, he served as associate producer of Carnegie Mellon Drama’s Showcase of New Plays.

Martin earned his Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in performing arts management at City University of New York under the late Stephen Langley, prominent arts management scholar and practitioner, and considered the “founding dean” of the field arts management. He earned his undergraduate degree in theatre production from Western Michigan University.

Photo of Barbara MacKenzie-Wood, a white woman with short white hair, wearing a turtleneck sweater.

Barbara MacKenzie-Wood

University Professor Emeritus

Barbara MacKenzie-Wood joined the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama faculty in 1986 and served for many years as the Area Chair for Acting/Music Theater. She has been honored with the prestigious Henry Hornbostel Award, given for teaching excellence in the College of Fine Arts.

Ms. MacKenzie-Wood began her professional acting career playing opposite Raul Julia in the title role of: The Hide And Seek Odyssey Of Madeline Gimple, directed by Lloyd Richards, at the Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Center.

As a professional actress she has appeared in more than 65 roles in New York and regional theater, stock and film. She is a founding member, actor, director and current member of the board of trustees of the Irondale Ensemble Project, a 30-year-old Obie Award-winning theater company in New York City.

Ms. MacKenzie-Wood has worked with leading theater directors, Paul Sills, Jacques Levy, Joanne Akalitis, and Jacques Lecoq, and was a member of the acting company at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven for five seasons. She played the central role in How To Make A Woman, the American representative at the International Theatre Festival in Wroclaw, Poland.

Ms. MacKenzie-Wood created the theater program for Global Camps South Africa, a pioneering, international venture fighting the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS on children in South Africa. She has taught and directed in Moscow for Moscow Art/CMU graduate Acting Program and in London at the Drama Center.

She is author of the Game Guide: Experimental Strategies for the Classroom and is featured in the book, Acting Teachers of America: A Vital Tradition which offers interviews with “fifty of the most influential acting teachers in the United States.” She is a certified master teacher in the Meisner Technique.

Ms. MacKenzie-Wood holds a B.F.A. degree in Acting from Boston University and an M.F.A. in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University.

Photo of Gregory Lehane, a white man with white hair.

Gregory Lehane

Professor Emeritus

Gregory Lehane has directed plays in New York City, where he was a founding member of Primary Stages Company and directed five New York premiers with that company. His work as been seen in American Regional Theaters, in Canada and in Egypt where he was a Distinguished Lecturer in Drama at the American University in Cairo. He directed a trilogy of Greek Tragedies for the Moscow Art Theatre School.

Lehane has directed television programs for all three networks, PBS, TBS, Lifetime, Nickelodeon, USA, The Disney Channel, in London, and in France for worldwide syndication. He has been nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Direction twice. He holds the rank of Professor of Drama and Music at Carnegie Mellon University where he has taught for two decades. He was coordinator of the undergraduate and graduate directing programs in the School of Drama for twelve years, and Associate Head for five years.

Television: The Work of 50 Men and Love Chance for WQED-TV and sponsored by the Sloan Foundation; The Magic Woods, a children’s program pilot; Nathan the Wise, a live, multi-camera broadcast. Recent Theatre/Opera: American Buffalo for the Pittsburgh Playhouse Rep; The Consul, L’Incorronzione Di Poppea, and Street Scene for the CMU School of Music, and Mahagony and Candide for the combined Schools.

Professor Lehane has directed programs for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He is the voice of Father Bach on a Rounder Records CD that teaches concepts in poetry and music to pre-schoolers. He is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and the Directors Guild of America.

Photo of Gary Kline, a white man with white hair and glasses, wearing a tan suit and holding his hand under his chin.

Gary Kline

Teaching Professor Emeritus

Gary Kline graduated from Carnegie Mellon’s School of Music in Vocal Performance, with credits from the Dana School of Music (YSU), winning Vocal Scholarships to both Institutions.

Gary began teaching Voice for the School of Drama in 1989. He created and taught such classes as Singing for Actors, Musical Theater Ensemble and currently teaches The Art of The Cabaret and Acting a Song in addition to private Voice Lessons.

He was appointed the first Assistant Option Coordinator of Musical Theater, and during that 12-year tenure created the CMU/CLO New Works Partnership, resulting in Workshops of new Musicals such as Caspar, One Red Flower (Paris Barclay), Yeast Nation (Hollmann and Kotis), and Dr. Doolittle (with Leslie Bricusse).   Under that partnership, Gary also coordinated The Jerry Herman Legacy Concert, with Mr. Herman, CMU students, and Broadway’s Karen Morrow, Jason Graae and Donald Pippin.

In 2006, Gary negotiated a new National Partnership with CLO, ASCAP and Stephen Schwartz’ New Writer’s Workshops, which have produced Staged Readings of Alive at Ten, Bubble Boy and most recently Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s Nero at CMU’s School of Drama.     That Partnership with Mark Fleischer (CLO) continues to this day, producing most recently the SPARK Festival of New Works.

He joined the National Alliance for Musical Theater (NAMT) representing CMU, and was named to the Festival Committee for 2003 and 2004, choosing the top new musicals presented in the NYC Festival.

Gary is known nationally as a Voice Teacher, having taught many Broadway luminaries and Tony Winners, and is a guest clinician for several Training Programs.

Currently, he serves as National Reviewer for the YoungArts Competition out of Miami, and serves as Artistic Director of the flourishing ArtsBridge Musical Theater Summer Program the Professional Promise Program at the CLO Academy, and is on the faculty for The Summer University Theater Experience (SUTE), based in California.

Other teaching/faculty credits have included: The Torggler Vocal Institute, Broadway Theater Project in Tampa, CMU’S Pre-College Program, The Flying Swan Acting Program at Wesleyan University (CT), Perry Mansfield School (CO), and teaches guest master classes for the Professional Promise Company at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera Academy.

Internationally, Gary served as Head of Music for the National Institute of Dramatic Arts NIDA) in Sydney Australia, and has taught Master Classes in Musical Theater for the New Normal University in Taipei, Taiwan.

Gary has directed several Junior Performance Musicals for CMU, including Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens, Carousel, 110 in the Shade, The Music Of Jacques Brel, and Evenings of Musical Theatre Scenes.

He directed the final Musical on the Kresge Stage, The World Goes ‘Round which was named in the “Top Five” of Pittsburgh’s Theatrical Best in 2000 by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Other Directorial credits include directing Tony McKay’s Father Figures at City Theater (Pittsburgh) and at Primary Stages in NYC (with Barbara Bosson and Michael Coles), and The Quoter in NYC’S Actor’s Ensemble Theater.

A proponent of the art of Cabaret, Gary has invited Broadway’s top Composers and Lyricists to participate in his Cabaret Class Performances.  Guests have included Stephen Schwartz, Jeanine Tesori, David Yazbek, Stephen Flaherty, Goldrich and Heisler, Andrew Lippa, Kooman and Dimond, and Maltby and Shire, all of whom performed live at Pittsburgh’s CLO Cabaret Theater with the Junior Musical Ensemble Students in the popular annual CMU Fall Cabaret Series.

Gary studied Acting at the British American Drama Academy (Stanford U) with Marsha Mason, Anne Jackson, Richard Dreyfuss, and Ed Asner, and at the Manhattan School of Music’s Professional Broadway School with Victor Garber and Johanna Merlin. In 2000, he attended the Cabaret Symposium at the O’Neill Theater in Connecticut, performing with Margaret Whiting and Julie Wilson, and studied and performed with Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Betty Buckley and Margaret Whiting at the Sundance Festival in Utah.

Musical Credits include roles with Pittsburgh’s Civic Light Opera (West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof), West Virginia Public (Man of La Mancha, Molly Brown), Pittsburgh Musical Theater (1776, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Man of La Mancha) and the WVA Symphony (A Little Night Music)..   Gary also has appeared in the plays The Laramie Project and Simple Motion at Pittsburgh City Theater.

Gary’s Classical roles include appearances with the Pittsburgh Opera (Fidelio, Bartered Bride, Rigoletto, Faust), and the PA Opera Festival (La Traviata). Collegiate opera performances include roles in Pagliacci, Cosi Fan Tutte and The Medium among others, as well as soloist in several Oratorios.

He has soloed twice with Conductor Marvin Hamlisch and the Pittsburgh Symphony Pops, and has appeared as Narrator with the PSO in The Lordly Lion.  Gary has been soloist with the South Hills Chorale, Edgewood Symphony, CMU Philharmonic, YSU Orchestra, and WVA Orchestra.

Gary’s Cabaret’s Performances include appearances at Danny’s Skylight Room, Duplex Cabaret Theater in NYC, sold-out Shows at the CLO Cabaret Theater and CMU’S Chosky Theater, and most recently at Christopher Newport University in Virginia.

Gary appeared at Carnegie Hall in NYC in 2017, accompanying Alumni Corey Cott with Kevin Paul and Jada Mayo.

His CD, released in 2002, includes duets with singers Billy Porter, Patrick Wilson, Sally Mayes, the legendary Margaret Whiting, as well as guitarist Joe Negri, among others musicians.  Other CD’s include Choral pieces with the Saint Bede Choir, Pittsburgh.

Gary also directed the Saint Bede Choir when they opened for the legendary folk singer Odetta at Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh for the Calliope Music Society.

He is a member of Phi Mu Alpha Fraternity, NATS, and EQUITY.

Black and white photo of Jed Harris, a man with white hair and a beard, wearing a collared shirt

Jed Allen Harris

Associate Teaching Professor Emeritus

Jed first came to Pittsburgh in 1976 as a founding member of Theater Express, a company primarily made up of CMU graduates. In the next four years the company created a body of progressive eclectic productions in both drama and musical theater.

Among the productions he directed there were Endgame, Pre-paradise Sorry Now, Angel City and The Marquis de Sade’s Justine. After the demise of Theater Express, he developed a relationship as Associate Director with the City Theatre, which lasted for over twenty years. During his tenure there, he directed over thirty plays including critically acclaimed productions of Curse of the Starving Class, How I Got That Story, The Danube, Glengarry Glen Ross, Talk Radio, Steel Kiss, Baltimore Waltz, Seventy Scenes of Halloween (which also toured Bulgaria through a sponsorship by the International Theater Institute), The Caretaker, Slavs and Night of the Living Dead-The Opera For the CMU Main stage he has directed Nicholas Nickelby (co-directed with Gregory Lehane), Escape From Happiness, Balm in Gilead, Red Noses, Sly Fox, Lysistrata, The Oresteia Project (with Associate Directors Matt Gray and Jay Ball) and The Government Inspector. Recently, he directed a critically acclaimed production of Heiner Muller’s The Task for Quantum Theatre.

Outside of Pittsburgh, productions include The Elephant Man at Theater X in Milwaukee, The Time of Your Life at SUNY-Purchase, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid at The Gateway Theater in Edinburgh, Scotland, Dubya and the Gang of Seven at Theater for a New City in NYC and most recently, The Curse of the Starving Class for Theatre Sofia in Bulgaria.

For four summers Jed was an advisor, teacher and participant in the Leon Katz Rhodopi International Theatre Laboratory in Smolyan, Bulgaria. A professional residency and alternative training program, the Rhodopi International Theatre Laboratory consists of theatre practitioners, scholars, and students from around the world, who are willing to share their culture, knowledge, and experience. Jed has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, The University of Pittsburgh, SUNY-Purchase and for 19 years at Carnegie Mellon University.

Photo of Janet Feindel, a white woman with light brown hair wearing a purple blouse and maroon scarf.

Janet Madelle Feindel

Professor Emeritus

Janet Madelle Feindel began teaching in the School of Drama in 1996 and was a tenured full professor of Voice and Alexander Technique. She also coached dialects on the CMU stages. Feindel spent the 2008-2009 as Visiting Professor and consultant at the School of Theatre, Film and Television at UCLA.

Her coaching credits include: co-coaching on Merchant of Venice, Jew of Malta with Cicely Berry, CBE, for Theatre for a New Audience, NYC, starring Academy Award Recipient F. Murray Abraham. Subsequently, Merchant played at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Complete Works Festival. Mr. Abraham hired Feindel as his Alexander Coach, utilizing funds from Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship.

Other credits include: Stratford Festival (including Voice and Alexander for Birmingham Conservatory); Shaw Festival, (also Principal of the Academy); Canadian Stage Company’s Shakespeare in the Park; Quantum Theatre, Pittsburgh Public, The Rep and many years working in regional theatres as an actress at Stratford, Manitoba Theatre, Theatre Calgary and many others. Film/TV/radio credits include: The Old Guy; US Queer As Folk; Dream Team; Street Legal; Love and Hate and coaching Brian Bedford for his preparation for Nixon (Oliver Stone).

Her book, The Thought Propels the Sound, is published by Plural Publishing, with enthusiastic reviews in the US: American Theatre Magazine; Voice and Speech Trainers Journal; the UK: British Voice Association (BVA); and Society for Teachers of the Alexander Technique (STAT) and New Zealand: Toi Wakaari. She has published articles internationally: “Voice/Acting and the Alexander Technique”; “Alexander Directed for Actors” in The Congress on the F. M. Alexander Technique Papers, published by STAT, London, UK, (2005, 2009); a chapter in Performer’s Voice, “Alexander Technique and Strategies for Addressing Vocal Tension”, Plural Publishing; Lo Straniero, Italy; also Canada’s Globe & Mail Book Reviews Section (Weekend/National Edition); Canadian Theatre Review and her play A Particular Class of Women, appears in Singular Voices, Canada Playwrights Press. Initially, she performed her play in venues in Canada and the US, including the WOW café in NYC, Alleyway Theatre, Buffalo, NY; Edmonton Fringe; Bathurst Street Theatre, Toronto; Great Canadian Theatre, Ottawa; and Bastion Theatre, Victoria, B.C. Her play has also been produced in Canada and the US, and in Rome, Italy, first in English and then in Italian at Teatro Inglese, then Teatro Colesseo.

Feindel has presented at conferences internationally including the Choice for Voice (BVA/Guildhall School), London, UK; Voice/Speech Trainers Association (VASTA), Montreal; Pacific Voice Foundation (Los Angeles, Santa Clara, CA); Care of the Professional Voice Symposium, Philadelphia, PA; Canadian Voice Care Symposium, Banff, Canada; International Congress on the F. M. Alexander Technique (Oxford, UK and Lugano, Switzerland); Alexander Technique International, (ATI) Budapest, Hungary; Lugano, Switzerland; Philadelphia. She has led workshops for Alexander Training programs in Toronto, Germany and for Montreal Yoga Festival. Feindel is a Designated Linklater Voice teacher, Certified in the Fitzmaurice Voice and is certified in the Alexander Technique (ATI); the International Somatic Movement Educators Therapists Association and certified with Yoga Alliance (200 hour).

Photograph by Karen Waggoner.

Black and white photo of Peter Cooke, a white man with light grey hair wearing a suit and tie.

Peter Cooke

University Professor Emeritus

Peter Cooke, AM PhD, is an internationally recognized performing arts educationalist, administrator, researcher and practitioner. Born in Brisbane, Australia and educated in Kuala Lumpur, Canberra, Southport and Sydney, Peter was the first graduate of the Theatre Design Course at Australia’s premiere theater school, the National Institute of Dramatic Art [NIDA] in Sydney, Australia. He earned his PhD at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

Peter was appointed Professor and Head of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama in January 2009. He was subsequently appointed a University Professor in 2019. Peter stepped down as Head of School in September 2020, after 12 years in the position. Prior to his appointment he was Deputy Director and Head of Design at NIDA, a role he held for twenty-two years. Peter is a member of the NIDA Foundation Trust and of the governing NIDA Company.

Peter has taught and lectured extensively throughout Southeast Asia – including leading design master classes and designing productions at the National School of Drama in New Delhi, India, where he has been a visiting professor for the past 16 years.

Over three decades Peter has designed some one hundred and fifty productions across the disciplines of drama, opera, dance, puppetry, music-theater, television, casinos and large-scale events. Peter’s Australian, Indian and American students have gone on to win numerous national and international accolades for their contributions to the arts, including, Helpmann and Green Room Awards [AU], and Tony Awards, Emmy Awards and Academy Awards [USA].

In 1990 Peter was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to audit theatre training pedagogy and practice in several leading drama schools across Europe and the USA. In 1996-97 he spent an academic year at the Yale School of Drama as a Special Research Fellow, auditing the Directing, Producing, Design and Playwriting Courses. He subsequently published a book about his time spent with Yale’s legendary design teacher, Professor Ming Cho Lee – ‘Yale School of Drama – Theatre Design Training’, Nairnpress 1999.

In 1996 Peter led the design team responsible for the Handover Ceremony at the Closing Ceremony of the Atlanta Summer Olympic Games. His inclusion of Australian student designers in the Atlanta team led to many being commissioned to design the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for the Sydney Summer Olympic Games in 2000.

Peter completed his PhD at the University of New South Wales in 2002 – researching the notion of ‘Australianness’ in the output of the London based and Tasmanian born theatre designer, Loudon Sainthill, 1919-1969.

Peter co-presented the ‘Excellence in Theater Education Award at the 2015, 2016 and 2017 CBS Tony Awards ceremonies in New York City.

Peter was made a Member of the Order of Australia, AM, in the Australia Day Honors in 2017 for ‘Substantial service to the performing arts as an administrator and academic, particularly to theatre and dance’. He was previously awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia, OAM, in the Queen’s Birthday Honors in 2008 for ‘Service to the performing arts through theatrical design education, research and administration.’

Photo of Natalie Baker Shirer, a woman with short dark hair wearing a taupe colored blouse.

Natalie Baker-Shirer

Associate Professor Emeritus

Natalie Baker-Shirer is internationally recognized as a leading authority on American Standard Speech. She began teaching in the School of Drama in 1993, and taught Speech and Phonetics, Dialects/Accents and Voice-Over Acting. Working with the Carnegie Mellon Online Learning Initiative (OLI) and supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Hewlett-Packard and Lumina, Natalie developed the AMERICAN ENGLISH SPEECH course. To date, there have been over 20,000 students world wide participating in the online course. It has also been used by the School of Drama and the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University.

She is an alumna of the School of Drama, acting major, where she studied speech and phonetics with her mentor Edith W. Skinner and received a BFA in Drama. She earned an MFA in Theater Pedagogy from the University of Pittsburgh. She was awarded the William H. and Frances B. Ryan Award for Meritorious Teaching at CMU. Other teaching credits include, Carnegie Mellon Graduate Theater Program (CMU, Harvard, MXAT), CMU Tepper School PHD candidates, University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate Theater Department, and West Virginia University Drama Department.

Baker-Shirer is the dialect coach on films: for Van Diesel The Last Witch Hunter, Katherine Heigl and Debbie Reynolds One For the Money, Sharon Stone and Isabel Adjani Diabolique, She has coached hundreds of theatrical productions and has served as the dialect coach for 75+ plays at the Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, as well as City Theatre and Kinetic Theatre.

Baker-Shirer’s began her professional career at age nine when she danced for Pittsburgh’s Civic Light Opera. At thirteen, she had her own weekly television program on PBS’ Ballet for You. She was a member of Pittsburgh Opera’s Ballet Company lead by Frederic Franklin. She was named “Star of Tomorrow” by composer Jule Styne, for her Broadway performance Something More with Barbara Cook, directed by Jule Styne. She performed in leading roles around the country including; Maria in Michael Bennett’s national tour West Side Story with Christopher Walken; Louise in three separate productions of Gypsy with J.P. Morgan, Peggy King and Marion Marlowe; Julie in Carousel, Rosemary in How to Suceed, Luisa in The Fantasticks throughout the United States and Canada. Television credits include a recurring role on PBS, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood , and the CBC Wayne and Shuster Show. Natalie received an Emmy for the Inside Story: What Doctors See. In addition to hundreds of national commercials, on and off screen, she has narrated video games: Hell with Dennis Hopper, Ripper with Christopher Walken and Burgess Meredith, Spiderman II: The Venom Factor and Spiderman II: The Sinister Six. Baker-Shirer is the voice for UPMC Internet Animations. She is currently narrating audiobooks for various publishers.

In 2000, Baker-Shirer developed the MY TRUE VOICE PROJECT for the underserved population of middle school children in Pittsburgh. In partnership with the Extra Mile Education Foundation, and with her CMU Drama speech students as mentors, the outreach combines pronunciation, poetry and her OLI Course: AMERICAN ENGLISH SPEECH to encourage clear, consistent speech.