She received her PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Pittsburgh, her MA in Performance Studies from New York University, and her BA in Theatre with a minor in Dance from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on theatre history, choreography, embodied dramaturgy, and performance as a tool for communication. Dr. Olmstead has published an article titled “Développé: Katherine Dunham’s Diasporic Dance” in the Studies in Musical Theatre Journal. Soon, she will have a chapter titled “Dance as Narrative: Storytelling Through the Ensemble Body” for a new collection titled Dance in Musical Theatre: A History of the Body in Movement (to be released in December 2023). In addition to teaching at CMU, she also currently teaches as part-time faculty for the Theatre Department at the University of Pittsburgh (performance & history, literature, & criticism courses) as well as for the English, Literature, and Communications department at Golden Gate University (college writing & media communications courses).