John Laughton is the Dean of the School of the Arts and Communication at The College of New Jersey and an international arts consultant and performer. He was formerly a professor of music, chair of the music department, and the former dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He holds advanced degrees from The University of Iowa (DMA) and The Catholic University of America (MM) and has done post-graduate work at the University of Texas, Boston College, Harvard University, and the Banff Center in Canada. As an arts administrator, Dr. Laughton has developed arts programs in the United States and Brazil, served as an advisor to the Institute for International Education, and has served as an officer on the boards of the Fulbright Association and the Fulbright Center in Washington, D.C. He has directed and produced the Tidewater Music Festival, Chesapeake SummerArts, and California Summer Arts. As a performer he has been broadcast nationally and internationally, and he has performed in major concert halls throughout the United States, Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Brazil, New Zealand, the People's Republic of China, and the Republic of China. He is a two-time winner of a Fulbright Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar Grant, a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute Grant, and twice the recipient of grants from the United States Information Agency for his concert/teaching tours of Brazil. He served on the panel of judges for the Taneev International Chamber Music Festival in Russia and for The Fourth Georgian Competition of Musician-Performers in Tbilisi, Georgia. His publications include articles on the works of Darius Milhaud, commentary on the lives of contemporary Chinese artists, and articles on cultural democracy, censorship, and the arts. He is an activist in arts, economic development, and violence prevention, serving on regional and national boards; international performer, teacher, and adjudicator; consultant; and works with charitable organizations to raise money and awareness on how the arts can transform communities and educate across disciplines.