[1] She won an OBIE Award for Outstanding Direction for Turn of the Screw in 1999 and is Professor of Performing Arts at Emerson College.
[2] Born in New York City of Jewish heritage and raised in Mexico City and San Diego, California, Bensussen is a graduate of La Jolla High School and of Brown University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in theatre and comparative literature.
She studied Yiddish theatre on a fellowship to Israel and taught English in Japan before returning to New York City to work as a translator and actor.
Her edition of the Langston Hughes translation of Federico García Lorca's Blood Wedding is in its ninth printing by Theatre Communications Group.
[5] The board of directors admired her "passion for reinterpreting classics and directing new plays, her broad and extensive experience at regional theatres across the country, her well-honed skill set as an artistic administrator in academia, and her commitment to advancing the theatre's community engagement initiatives and education programs.