Janice Paxson Evans serves as the Department Administrator for the School of Dance, where she supports faculty, staff, and students in day-to-day operations such as scheduling, purchasing, coordination of conference travel, working with vendors and assisting with guest artist residencies. Janice appreciates working in such a creative environment and enjoys hearing music of all kinds coming from the dance studio across the hall from the office. 

Prior to this role, Janice worked for several years as an Events Coordinator at Arts West, the City of Athens community arts center. This involved supporting a broad spectrum of events and ongoing classes through interaction with a wide variety of artists from the surrounding community as well as Ohio University.  With a background in theater, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theater Arts/Drama from San Jose State University, in California, along with an MA in Theater from Ohio University, and is a member of the Actors’ Equity Association.

Janice participates in an annual staged reading of Merri Biechler’s play Confession of a Reluctant Caregiver for second-year medical students in OHIO’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Palliative Care unit; A project that promotes compassionate communication in future healthcare professionals.

She believes that the arts enrich communities, foster empathy, and help build a sense of belonging through storytelling in all its forms. Working for C+M CoFA in the School of Dance has shed more light on the vitality of dance in our world and in the expression of our shared humanity.