Kent Neely earned his baccalaureate degree in 1971 from Oklahoma City University majoring in speech and drama with a secondary teaching certificate. He pursued the Master's and Doctorate degrees in theatre at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan where he was a member of the nationally recognized Hilberry Repertory Theatre.
Upon completing the Ph.D. in 1976, Dr. Neely taught at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina and then, in 1977, joined the faculty of the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Minnesota at Twin Cities. He remained at Minnesota for 17 years teaching theatre management and theory/criticism, working as Managing Director of the University Theatre, and, between 1992 and 1994, heading the M.A. and Ph.D. Program in theatre.
He is published in a number of scholarly journals including the Theatre Journal, Theatre History Studies, Theatre Design and Technology, High Performance, Theatre Topics and the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism. He has made several presentations at regional and national conferences including those of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, the Mid America Theatre Conference, the National Association of Schools of Theatre and the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences. He has served as an executive board member on several national and regional professional and civic organizations over the years.
Dr. Neely entered academic administration at Boise State University in 1994 as Chair of the Department of Theatre Arts. In 1998, he became Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at BSU. His entrepreneurial skills and abilities produced partnerships in educational outreach with Idaho public schools and international exchange programs with universities in Russia, Latvia and China. In 2001, he was selected to serve as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. He was recognized for his service by the Idaho Council on Economic Education and the Idaho Academic Decathlon and made a Fellow of the Mid America Theatre Conference in 2006. In 2009, Wayne State University presented Dr. Neely the Ovation Award for Distinguished Alumni in recognition of his many accomplishments as an academic leader and scholar.
He became Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs of Western Oregon University in August 2008.
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