Janet Parrott, associate professor and chair of the Department of Theatre, was recently appointed director of the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD), effective Aug. 30, 2018, through June 30, 2020. Ohio Eminent Scholar Maria Palazzi, director of ACCAD for the last 17 years, is returning to full-time teaching in the Department of Design.

Parrott has worked as an independent performer and filmmaker for over 25 years, and her films have been screened at the Three Rivers Arts Festival, The Black Maria Film Festival and the Columbus International Film Festival. In 2010, she produced and directed “Song of the Soul: Stories of Hospice in South Africa,” a documentary chronicling the lives of South African nurses, social workers and caregivers providing hospice to individuals with life-threatening illnesses. The film was distributed by Icarus Films and was the Viewer’s Choice Award at the 2011 Western Psychological Association Film Festival.

Parrott was awarded Ohio State’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2009, was an ASC Outstanding Teaching Award finalist in 2012 and won the Ronald and Deborah Ratner Distinguished Teaching Award in 2015.

Parrott earned her MA in cinema from Ohio State. She began her career at Ohio State as assistant professor in 2005 before becoming an associate professor in 2011. She was named chair of the Department of Theatre in 2016.