Lissa Slay is a director, educator, and teaching artist, holding a B.A. in Directing for the Theatre (CSUF), M.S. in Education (CSUF), M.F.A. in Theatre Education (MUW), and California Teaching Credentials in both primary (multiple-subject, authorization for Drama/Theatre – CSUF), secondary (English – UCLA), and career technical education (Arts/Media/Entertainment – OCDE). She also serves as a consultant and teaching artist through her educational business, The Happy Theatre Teacher (TheHappyTheatreTeacher.com), providing professional development opportunities for theatre educators both online and through various school districts and arts organizations.

Lissa is currently the Theatre Program Director for Newport Harbor High School in Newport Beach, California, and also serves as adjunct faculty at Vanguard University, teaching Theatre Education and previously served as founding Education Director of American Coast Children’s Theatre, the youth-oriented arm of the university’s resident professional theatre company. Recently, Lissa has supported The Wayward Artist and No Square Theatre, with a focus on educational programming.

As a teaching artist for Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Lissa is part of the Disney Musicals in Schools program, bringing sustainable musical theatre programming into elementary schools with limited arts programming. Lissa has taught as both an elementary and high school theatre teacher at various school sites, Theatre adjunct faculty at Santa Ana College and Chaffey College, as a film acting teacher at the film conservatory The Playground, and toured seventeen states over four tours with the acclaimed Missoula Children’s Theatre in Missoula, Montana. Lissa is a proud member of the Educational Theatre Association, California Educational Theatre Association, and Actors’ Equity Association.

Lissa and her husband, Kevin, are the joyful parents to Penelope and Finley and reside in southern California.