Main Faculty*
Pam Dunne is a Registered Drama Therapist and Board-Certified Trainer with the North American Drama Therapy Association. She is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Professor Emeritus of Theatre Arts and Dance at California State University Los Angeles. She has authored 9 books, directed multiple plays, and either directed or appeared in many educational films. Dr. Dunne has served as Keynote speaker, workshop leader, and is an International leader and trainer in the field of Drama Therapy. She is currently conducting a training program for Narradrama both at the Facilitator and Trainer level. Her work has garnered her both the 2014 Teaching Excellence Award from the NADTA and the 2016 Gertrud Schattner Award for Distinguished Contribution to Drama Therapy.
Kamran Afary is an Assistant Professor of Intersectional Identities and Relationships and a recipient of the 2016 Outstanding Lecturer Award at Cal State LA. He teaches interpersonal and health communication to student-prisoners in Lancaster California, and has worked extensively with Middle Eastern and South Asian refugee-immigrant populations He is a Narradrama Trainer and has recently presented Narradrama training in China. His publications include: Iranian Diaspora Identities: Stories and Songs (Hamilton 2020) and Communication Research on Expressive Arts as Forms of Healing (Lexington 2020); and Performance and Activism: Grassroots Discourse after the Los Angeles Rebellion of 1992 (Lexington 2009).
Pam Paulson currently trains Drama Therapists at the Drama Therapy
Institute of Los Angeles and the Apollo School in Beijing, China. She has co-led several
workshops nationally and internationally with Dr. Pam Dunne often focused on Narradrama
practices. For 28 years Pam worked for Orange County Children & Family Services as a senior
social worker/supervisor specializing in: childhood trauma, intimate partner violence, substance
abuse and adoptions. Pam worked with community partnerships to create a Parent Mentor
Program and a Strengthening Marriage Workshop for active duty and veteran families. As a co-
writer and director, she created “The Job Interview”, a training about White Privilege, and co-
founded of PAX (Personal Art eXchange) a community-based art group. She teaches Authentic
Movement and holds a certificate from the Authentic Movement Institute in Berkeley,
California. She is an advisory board member for the non-profit Project Satori which provides
therapeutic services to Trafficking Survivors. She also enjoys being a resident artist of Panndora
Productions, a theater company base in Long Beach, as an actor, director, and producer. She is
co-author along with Pam Dunne, and Kamran Afary for the Narradrama chapter for the third
edition of the Current Approach in Drama Therapy.
*Alongside these faculty members, guest faculty members will also be teaching some classes under this program.
Program start date is September 2025, but applications are also accepted year-round