Nancy Houfek brings over thirty five years of working with performers and public speakers to her consulting and coaching practice teaching communication, presentation, negotiation and leadership. A stage director, award-winning actor, and nationally recognized theater educator, Nancy has presented workshops combining theater, storytelling and leadership techniques for corporations, think tanks, universities, and professional organizations throughout the U.S. and Canada. At Harvard, Nancy has taught in programs at the Kennedy School of Government, the School of Public Health, the Medical School, the Radcliffe Fellows, and the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning. The Act of Teaching, a film of her work with Harvard faculty produced by the Bok Center, has been distributed to faculty development centers nationwide. In 1999, Nancy began a collaboration with Lee Warren of Harvard's Kennedy School creating a series of workshops designed to help women with communication, negotiation and leadership challenges: "Strong Women/Strategic Performance" has now been presented to more than one hundred institutions and professional groups nationally.
She has held faculty or guest positions at the American Conservatory Theater, University of Washington, the Drama Studio of London, Southern Methodist University and the University of Minnesota where she headed the actor-training program. From 1997 – 2014, she was Head of Voice & Speech for Harvard’s Tony Award winning American Repertory Theater, where she taught vocal production, coached the professional acting company, and administered the M.F.A. in voice training pedagogy. Nancy received seven consecutive awards for excellence in teaching from Harvard University. Nancy’s performance career spanned several decades in theaters from New York to California. Publications include articles in Voice & Speech Training in the New Millennium: Conversations with Master Teachers by Nancy Saklad, The New England Theater Journal, The Voice & Speech Review, The Complete Voice and Speech Workout and the VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainer's Association) News.
MFA American Conservatory Theater; BA Stanford University.
