Heather Addison joined UNLV FILM in 2016 as the Chair. She has taught a broad range of courses in film history, criticism, and theory, with a particular focus on genre studies and animation. Her primary research area is Hollywood's relationship to American culture. At UNLV, she co-wrote a $271,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant that cataloged and preserved materials in the Department of Film’s Howard Hughes Motion Picture Production Records (now available in Special Collections & Archives at the UNLV Library).

Addison has published her work in a large number of scholarly journals. Her books include Hollywood and the Rise of Physical Culture (Routledge Press) and Motherhood Misconceived: Representing the Maternal in U.S. Films (SUNY Press), a collection of essays co-edited with Elaine Roth and Mary Kate Goodwin-Kelly.