Osburn has a PhD and MA in Performance Studies from New York University, where he received the Performance Studies Award for Academic Excellence.
He holds a BFA in Theater from the University of Utah, which he attended on the Maud May Babcock Scholarship. He was inducted into the honorary journalism, broadcasting, and forensics societies, and was given the Best Director Award.
In 2009, he earned the Diploma in Spanish as a Foreign Language (DELE), Intermediate Level, at Instituto Cervantes in New York City.
Osburn is an alumnus of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, the Critic Fellow program at the American Dance Festival, the Leadership Development Institute of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, and a directing intensive with Jerzy Grotowski at Denver University.
He has been active in professional organizations including the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, American Society for Engineering Education, and American Communication Association; served as Treasurer of Colorado Dramatists; and was a founding member of the Denver Drama Critics Circle.