Valerie B. Morris, Dean of the College of Charleston School of the Arts, is one of twelve winners of the Charleston Regional Business Journal’s Influential Women in Business awards for 2013. The annual awards recognize local women who have demonstrated professional excellence and leadership in their careers and community service. A luncheon will be held for the winners, and they will be featured in a special section of the Business Journal.
Dean Morris has overseen the School of the Arts since 1998 and also has taught in the School’s Arts Management Program. Prior to joining the College, she was the Chair of the Department of Performing Arts at American University in Washington, D.C., where she was the founding director of that institution’s Arts Management Program.
Dean Morris is involved in several national, state-wide and local organizations. She is a member of the Steering Committee for South Carolina’s Arts in Basic Curriculum program, serves on the board of the South Carolina Arts Alliance, and the Arts Schools Network, and is the immediate past president of the South Carolina Alliance for Arts Education. She is a board member of the Charleston Concert Association, the Charleston Jazz Initiative, and the Free Enterprise Foundation. She is a past member of numerous other boards and committees.
Dean Morris has received various awards and distinctions, including the YWCA Greater Charleston’s “Tribute to Women of Influence” and a “Women of Distinction” award from the Girl Scouts of Eastern South Carolina. Most recently Charlie magazine included her in its 2013 list of people to watch in conjunction with its list of the Fifty Most Progressive people in Charleston.