Rosanna Quesada Palm or Dessa joined the Philippine Educational Theater Association at age 13 and has since devoted her life in theater as a performer, teacher, organizer, director, and playwright. Dessa spent many years with the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA), and worked with UP Repertory, Ma-Yi Theater in New York City, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, and Silliman University. She finished AB Economics at the University of the Philippines (1986), and her master’s in International Relations at the New School for Social Research (1994) as a Fulbright scholar, and has worked at integrating theater in education, advocacy and development work and community building. She has conducted theater and other workshops all over the Philippines as well as parts of Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. She lives in Dumaguete City and co-creates with the members of the Youth Advocates Through Theater Arts (YATTA) which she co-founded in 2005. YATTA was declared one of the Ten Accomplished Youth Organizations in 2008 by the National Youth Commission, and was a recipient of the CCP Kaisa Ini sa Sining, Lunsay nga Artistang Pilipino (KSSLAP) Awards in 2021. She served as Head of the Committee on Dramatic Arts of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts from 2017-2019 and is currently a faculty at the Silliman University College of Performing and Visual Arts. She is the Vice President of the Women Playwrights International- Philippines.