The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center has chosen Tiffani Gavin as its new executive director.

Of the five people who have held that job over the center’s 55-year history, Gavin is the second woman and the first person of color.

She replaces Preston Whiteway, who left the center after 16 years to take a job with Tribeca Productions as a creative development consultant.

Gavin held managerial and creative development roles in both nonprofit and commercial theater, including serving as managing director at the American Repertory Theater, executive producer at SFX/Clear Channel, and, most recently, as manager of the Marquis Theatre on Broadway.

In a phone interview on Thursday, Gavin said she is very excited about joining the O’Neill. She spoke about the center’s impressive legacy and impact and said, “I’ve always been in awe of the projects that have come out of here.”

A few years ago, she worked as a general manager on a show that was developed at the O’Neill.

“The improvement from when it came in (to the O'Neill) to when it left in two weeks was extraordinary,” she said. “I thought, ‘Wow, if that could happen in two weeks, then they have something secret in their sauce.’”

Gavin, 47, also noted that she had a neighbor in New York who is an alum of the O’Neill’s National Theater Institute and “spoke so highly of this place. It’s been years since he’s been here, but he talks about it like it was just yesterday.”

Asked about being the first Black woman to lead the O’Neill, Gavin said with a laugh, “Well, I hope I’m not the last! ... It’s very exciting. I hope that I can bring something unique to the table at the O’Neill and just build on and expand its own legacy. I think that the O’Neill has always been committed to diversity and inclusion, so I’m excited to be able to do that from the top-level position, and I hope it creates opportunity for others as well.”

O’Neill Board Chairman Tom Viertel, who led the national search process, said he is thrilled with Gavin becoming the center’s executive director. He said the board was looking for a combination of things when searching for Whiteway’s successor. Board members wanted someone with great leadership skills and the ability to bring people together: artists, staff, board, contributors and audiences with a wide range of interests and approaches to the ways they do what they do. He noted that, unlike most theaters, the O’Neill has a lot of co-equal projects, and those projects need to be unified in a number of ways.

“In Tiffani, I think we’ve found somebody whose ability to bring people together is palpable,” he said, adding that she is someone staff members can go to for advice and solutions.

The board also wanted someone who has an ability to look ahead to the theater of the future, he said, and Gavin has that, as well.

The O’Neill will hold virtual town hall events to welcome Gavin. The first will be at 6 p.m. Sept. 22 exclusively for O’Neill members. Additional sessions are open to the public at 3 p.m. Sept. 23 and 6 p.m. Sept. 24. Visit www.theoneill.org for details.

“I hope to get to meet as many members of southeastern Connecticut that I can virtually before we can all get together and can (eventually) see a show in the Barn,” she said.

Waterford First Selectman Robert J. Brule said, “We’re excited as a town to welcome Tiffani. This is great news — great news for the O’Neill, the town and the arts.”

Gavin, who grew up in East Norriton, Pa., took her first acting class at age 6. She was an only child and says that her mother, “in her infinite wisdom, realized a great way to give an only child confidence and socialization was to put her in an acting class.”

She continued to be drawn to theater in part because “of the variety of people I got to work with. I learned so much about people that were different from me, whether it was through the plays that we worked on or the people that I interacted with.”

During her time at Brown University — she graduated in 1995 — she sang with an a cappella ensemble and worked with a theater group. Both of those were student-run, and she got more involved in the business side of the arts. She enjoyed that aspect of things and felt as though she had found her niche. She got an internship in casting at the renowned Public Theater in New York City and then was hired to work in the general management office there. Thus began her impressive career in the field.

At the O’Neill, meanwhile, things are buzzing. Gavin notes that next week, the National Theater Institute begins, and the window for submissions for the National Playwrights Conference opens.

One of the things she loves about the O’Neill job, Gavin said, is that “it’s this amazing combination of the artistic and the managerial, and those are the two parts of my career that I’ve gone back and forth on — I’ve been a producer, I’ve been a manager. I don’t know many other positions that combine those roles into one. It is what attracted me to this particular position, above all others.”

k.dorsey@theday.com