Carol Becker is Professor of the Arts and Dean Emerita, Columbia University School of the Arts. Prior to her time at Columbia, she was Dean of Faculty and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She received her PhD in English and American Literature from the University of California, San Diego. She is the author of numerous articles and several books including: The Invisible Drama: Women and the Anxiety of Change; The Subversive Imagination: Artists, Society, and Social Responsibility; Zones of Contention: Essays on Art, Institutions, Gender, and Anxiety; Surpassing the Spectacle: Global Transformations and the Changing Politics of Art; Thinking in Place: Art, Action, and Cultural Production and most recently a memoir/essay entitled Losing Helen. She lectures widely and globally and works closely with the World Economic Forum on issues of art, culture and leadership. She also serves on their World Arts Forum Foundation Board.