Richard Riddell, who serves as special assistant to President Richard H. Brodhead, will add vice president and university secretary to his list of responsibilities, beginning Jan. 1, Brodhead announced Wednesday.
As special assistant, Riddell functions as the presidential chief of staff. In his added role as vice president and university secretary, he will coordinate the activities of the board of trustees, oversee university ceremonies such as commencement and manage hiring and review processes for senior university officials.
Riddell will succeed Allison Haltom, who previously announced plans to retire at year's end as vice president and university secretary, completing a 36-year career at Duke.
In announcing the appointment, Brodhead said he had researched how other institutions have combined the secretary function with the presidential chief of staff to strengthen the interactions between the president and the board of trustees.
"Richard continues to provide excellent service as special assistant to the president and has assumed a growing role not only in trustee communications and in orchestrating board presentations, but in coordinating administrative efforts for the Senior Leadership Group and other projects," Brodhead said in a memo to school officials. "Many have commented on how deftly he has performed these responsibilities, and I am confident he will do an excellent job in this restructured organization."
Before being named special assistant to the president in 2004, Riddell worked as special assistant to Provost Peter Lange from 2003 to 2004 and helped the provost develop the arts component in the university's latest strategic plan. Prior to serving in the university administration, he chaired Duke's Department of Theater Studies, where he holds an appointment as the Mary D.B.T. and James H. Semans Professor of the Practice of Theater Studies. He came to Duke in 1992 and has taught classes on "Arts and Contemporary Society," "Lighting Design for the Theater" and "Arts and Stage in the 20th Century."
Riddell has received the Tony, Drama Desk and Maharam awards for excellence in lighting design and has designed productions on Broadway and at resident theater and opera companies in the United States and Great Britain. These include the American Repertory Theatre, the English National Opera, the New York City Opera, the La Jolla Playhouse, the Guthrie Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Riddell designed the lighting for premieres of three operas by Philip Glass: "Satyagraha," "Akhnaten" (also collaborating on the libretto), and "The Fall of the House of Usher."
Riddell received his bachelor of arts degree from Knox College in Illinois, where he is now a trustee, and his Ph.D. from Stanford University. He has published articles on education and the arts, theater design and European theater in publications such as The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, American Theater and The Drama Review.
Prior to coming to Duke, he was a professor in the Department of Theater at the University of California, San Diego (1978-87), and director of the Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University (1987-1991).