School Notes: David Geffen School of Drama
May/June 2026

Longtime marketing director retires

Daniel Lincoln Cress, marketing director at David Geffen School of Drama since 2015, has retired from the university. Cress began his career at Yale as marketing manager at the Geffen School and Yale Repertory Theatre in 2007, and continued to serve the school and Yale Rep with distinction through 2015, when he was appointed to his final post as director of marketing. 

“I’ve had the pleasure of calling Daniel a good and trusted colleague since 2020,” said associate dean and managing director Florie Seery in a message to the Geffen School community. “The American theater has faced extraordinary headwinds since returning to live, in-person performance in the wake of Covid-19,” she added, “with lower attendance and revenue numbers reported by theaters across the country. Yale Rep has proven to be remarkably strong and resilient, realizing year-over-year increases in both the numbers of subscribers and single ticket buyers. . . . These achievements have coincided with strategic changes in our pricing models instituted under Daniel’s leadership. Leveraging our place of privilege in the field (subsidized as we are in large part by the university), Daniel has sought to make Yale Rep financially accessible to the broadest possible audiences from New Haven and beyond.”

On behalf of Yale Rep, Cress fostered meaningful relationships with a diverse group of New Haven social and service organizations, including the Urban Professionals Network, NAACP, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, New Haven Girl Friends, New Haven Pride Center, Junta for Progressive Action, and IRIS. He has also been a tireless advocate and voice for others at the university, perhaps most notably for those living with disabilities. In 2016, the Office of Employee Engagement and Workplace Culture tapped him to launch the Disability Alliance at Yale Employee Resource Group (ERG), which he cochaired from 2021 to 2023. His work on this committee, and with the LGBTQ+ ERG on which he served beginning in 2012, has effected change not only for members of those groups but for the broader university community.