Commencement Program

Commencement Speaker
Doctor of Letters

David Remnick has been the editor of The New Yorker since 1998 and a staff writer since 1992. He has written hundreds of pieces for the magazine, including reporting from Russia, the Middle East, and Europe and profiling Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Katharine Graham, Mike Tyson, Bruce Springsteen, Ralph Ellison, Philip Roth, Benjamin Netanyahu, Leonard Cohen, and Mavis Staples. He also serves as the host of the magazine’s national radio program and podcast, The New Yorker Radio Hour.

Remnick began his reporting career in 1982 as a staff writer at The Washington Post, where he covered stories for the Metro, Sports, and Style sections. In 1988, he started a four-year assignment as a Washington Post Moscow correspondent, an experience that formed the basis of his 1993 book, Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire. In 1994, Lenin’s Tomb received both the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction and a George Polk Award for excellence in journalism.

Under Remnick’s leadership, The New Yorker has become the country’s most honored magazine. It has won more than 50 National Magazine Awards during his tenure, including multiple citations for general excellence. In 2016, The New Yorker became the first magazine to receive a Pulitzer Prize for its writing and now has won 11 Pulitzers, including the gold medal for public service. Remnick was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2016.

Remnick has written seven books: Lenin’s Tomb, Resurrection: The Struggle for a New Russia, King of the World (a biography of Muhammad Ali), and The Bridge (a biography of Barack Obama), along with The Devil Problem, Reporting, and Holding the Note, which are collections of some of his pieces from the magazine. He has also edited or co-edited many anthologies of New Yorker articles, including The Matter of Black Lives, The Fragile Earth, Life Stories, Wonderful Town, The New Gilded Age, Fierce Pajamas, Disquiet, Please!, and Secret Ingredients.

Remnick has taught at Princeton University, where he received his BA in 1981, and at Columbia University. He lives in New York with his wife, Esther Fein. They have three children, Alex, Noah, and Natasha.

Honorary Degree Recipient
Doctor of Humane Letters

Dr. Mariët Westermann is the director and CEO of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, directing its flagship museum in New York, overseeing the foundation and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, and providing collaborative leadership at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the future Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. 

Westermann most recently led NYU Abu Dhabi, a degree-granting campus of NYU, as vice chancellor, having been the institution’s founding provost from 2007 to 2010. She has also served as executive vice president of the Mellon Foundation, director of NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts, associate director at the Clark Art Institute, and a faculty member at Rutgers University. 

She earned a BA at Williams College and an MA and PhD at the Institute of Fine Arts. Westermann publishes widely on Netherlandish painting, the anthropology of art, museums, and higher education. She serves on the boards of ALIPH, the Rijksmuseum, and the American Academy in Rome and chairs the Scholar Rescue Fund of the Institute of International Education.

Honorary Degree Recipient
Doctor of Fine Arts

Ted Shaine was born in 1947 and grew up in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn. He attended Abraham Lincoln High School, graduating in 1964, and was fortunate to study under Leon Friend, chairman of the art department at the school. Friend was a major influence in Shaine’s early career and encouraged him to attend Saturday Art classes at Pratt Institute during his senior year of high school. Thanks to Friend’s mentoring, Shaine was awarded a scholarship to Pratt upon his high school graduation.

During his senior year at Pratt, Shaine was part of a team that designed the 1968 yearbook, an experience that was invaluable. After graduating from the Institute with a BFA, he immediately went to work at one of the most prestigious advertising agencies at the time, Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB). There, he had the opportunity to work as an assistant to Senior Art Director Bob Gage and contributed to campaigns for major brands such as Volkswagen and El Al Airlines during the early part of his career.

Shaine’s most productive years in advertising were spent at DDB and another highly respected creative agency, BBDO. During those years, he also lectured on occasion at Pratt and taught courses at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

He was nominated for an Emmy Award for a commercial he created for FedEx and had the privilege of working for many other iconic brands, including Club Med, Schweppes, Pizza Hut, Pepsi, and Volkswagen. During this time, he was also fortunate to collaborate with remarkable global figures such as Muhammad Ali, Mikhail Gorbachev, and John Cleese. His graphic work is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. 

Today, Shaine’s creative work is focused on printmaking, and he has received several awards from international competitions. He now resides in Florida with Pat, his wife of 40 years.

Pratt Distinguished Teacher 2026–27
Adjunct Associate Professor
Graduate Communications Design

Karen L. Dunn is a filmmaker, activist, and educator whose practice moves between video, print culture, and sustainability advocacy. She holds an MFA in video/intermedia arts from the University of North Carolina, an MA in integrated media and performance from the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and a BA in motion picture studies from UCLA.

She is cofounder of No Kill: Project Planet, a nonprofit dedicated to sustainable fashion and anti-consumption advocacy. Through its publication No Kill Magazine, street campaigns, zines, and public interventions, the organization challenges dominant narratives around consumption and luxury and is a member of the UN Fashion and Lifestyle Network.

Her most recent film, The Elephant (in My Room), follows Barbara Greene Mann, a painter who emerged from Detroit’s Cass Corridor in the 1980s, disappeared from the art world, and was rediscovered three decades later, a consequential figure in Toronto’s (dis)ability art scene. Premiering at the Detroit Institute of Arts in October 2025, the film will broadcast on PBS in August 2026. Strange Beauty (Wayne State University Press, 2025), co-edited with Caroline Maun and designer Lorraine Wild, is its companion: an illustrated retrospective gathering Mann’s art alongside essays by those who knew her work and her world. Together they make the case that even in the bleakest moments, creativity can change the story.

Since 2015, Dunn has been an adjunct associate professor in the Graduate Communications Design program at Pratt Institute, where she teaches thesis research, design writing, sustainability, and technology courses and serves as a thesis research affinity group leader.

Undergraduate Student Speaker
BFA Communications Design

Anish Lahiri is graduating from Pratt Institute with a degree in graphic design and minors in UX/UI and literature and writing. Having grown up across the globe, his work is shaped by an interest in community, culture, storytelling, and history. During his time at Pratt, he developed as both a thinker and maker, exploring how design can connect people through different forms of message-making. Lahiri served as co-president of the student design club ComD Agency and as a Figma campus leader, fostering spaces for students to learn, connect, and explore different areas of design. After graduation, he looks forward to continuing his work and using design as a way to bring people and society together.

Who has inspired you creatively?

Hokusai, T.S. Eliot, Lee Chanhyuk, Barbara DiLorenzo, my high school art teachers, and my college professors.

What’s your favorite building or piece of art on the Pratt campus?

The library. 

What was your most memorable class?

Shakespeare with Professor Steven Doloff.

Do you have a favorite lunch spot near campus?

Big shout-out to Myrtle Thai. Highly recommend the pad see-ew, basil over rice, and the chive pancake!

What is the number one place you’d recommend in Brooklyn for a first-time visitor?

Brooklyn Bridge Park. It’s got dogs, a pier, grass, trees, and dogs. Great place to just hang around and observe life.

What is one piece of advice you received at Pratt that has been meaningful?

Use the library while you have access to it. There’s so much knowledge, art, history, and inspiration in there that you’ll regret not exploring once you’re gone.

Graduate Student Speaker
MS Urban Placemaking and Management

Aliman Temirbek, a graduating master’s student in Pratt Institute’s Urban Placemaking and Management program, is committed to social responsibility, community engagement, and equitable urban development. Born and raised in Kyrgyzstan, Temirbek proudly represents the Kyrgyz community in New York and is the first graduate from her country in Pratt’s history. As a mother of two, she brings a unique perspective on resilience, care, and intergenerational responsibility to her academic and professional pursuits.

At Pratt, Temirbek has actively bridged scholarship and practice through a fellowship at the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office, an internship at the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, and leadership in CREW NY’s Young Professionals program for women in commercial real estate. Her research and practice focus on designing inclusive public spaces, supporting underrepresented immigrant communities, and leveraging urban design as a tool for social equity. Temirbek’s work embodies collaboration, empathy, and civic responsibility, reflecting her belief that education is both a personal journey and a public trust.

Who has inspired you creatively?

Drawing from the human-scale urbanism of Jan Gehl, I’ve shifted my focus to the intentional design of streets and the spaces between buildings. My research, Nomadic Placemaking for Delivery Workers, is rooted in the belief—championed by figures like Jane Jacobs—that successful urban design must prioritize the lived experience of its most active users. 

What’s your favorite building or piece of art on the Pratt campus?

I love the courtyard between the East Hall and South Hall, because it’s a peaceful, open-air sanctuary that lets you enjoy nature and sunlight right in the middle of campus. 

What was your most memorable class?

My most memorable class was Landscape Architecture, especially our field trips to Brooklyn Bridge Park and the New York Botanical Garden; it completely reframed my perspective by showing me that landscapes are a deliberate blend of culture and aesthetics, where every “natural” detail is actually professionally controlled.

Do you have a favorite lunch spot near campus?

Definitely, Choice Market, 318 Lafayette Ave.

What is the number one place you’d recommend in Brooklyn for a first-time visitor?

DUMBO. I had it on my phone screen one year prior to when I was accepted to Pratt, and I made a wish, and I manifested it. 

What is one piece of advice you received at Pratt that has been meaningful?

“Be yourself, never change,” by Professor Jack Travis.

Student Performer
Bachelor of Architecture

Making music with friends is one of Kelly-Ann Tan’s favorite pastimes. Tan has eight years of choral experience and is self-taught in the acoustic guitar, playing regularly in church settings back home in Singapore.

She will be graduating from Pratt with a bachelor of architecture and a minor in social justice/social practice. In about a week, Tan will return to Singapore to work at the government’s Building and Construction Authority.

She is thankful beyond words for every peer and leader she has met at Pratt and for all the mentorship and opportunities she has received. She is grateful for God, family, and friends—her source of strength, joy, and perspective throughout this season of her life.

Who has inspired you creatively?

Beyond my family, peers, and mentors, I’m also constantly inspired by a range of creators: architects, graphic and type designers, artists in social justice/practice, street and Southeast Asian photographers/filmographers, ceramicists, and more!

Tell us more about your music background.

For eight years, I was in school choir and participating in local/international competitions. I also learned the electric organ and ukulele in middle school and first picked up the acoustic guitar on my own as a teen. These days, I get to make music for fun with friends and in church settings back home!

What’s your favorite building or piece of art on the Pratt campus?

The ARC has the coolest roof structure to play sports and hold events under!

What was your most memorable class?

Quite an impossible question to answer, but Freehand Drawing with Professor Piccolo in Rome was something special. Something about sitting in historic Roman sites for hours with just a sketchpad and a pencil…

Do you have a favorite lunch spot near campus?

Dunhuang has been a classic spot for dinners with friends after class. Love their comforting soup noodles!

What is the number one place you’d recommend in Brooklyn for a first-time visitor?

TimeOut Market has beautiful views of the East River (check out the rooftop) and a bustling inner space with good food. Great place to hang out with friends!

What is one piece of advice you received at Pratt that has been meaningful?

Your work does not determine your worth. Create from security, humility, curiosity and joy. 🙂

Student Performer
Bachelor of Architecture

Megan Chew picked up the flute after her great-grandmother gifted her one on her seventh birthday. At nine, she was recruited into her school choir, where she trained in voice and performed in the Singapore Youth Festival. She would like to thank her family, especially her mom and dad, for always supporting her side hobbies and this crazy endeavor to move halfway across the world and embark on a long college journey to finally earn a bachelor of architecture with a minor in literature and writing. She’s also really grateful for her found family, her friends, and mentors at Pratt and all across New York, who stood by her when things got tough (as they often did) and gifted her many moments of laughter and joy.

Who has inspired you creatively?

While my professors have pushed me so much, I think a lot of my creative inspiration has also come from my friends outside of my major, such as friends in writing, painting, photography, and 2D animation. They constantly gave me new ways of seeing, thinking, and creating, which has definitely influenced my own work.

Tell us more about your music background.

I grew up in a family of musicians—my grandmother is a violin teacher and my aunt a professional violinist—so I was constantly surrounded by classical music. I learned to play the flute at seven and got recruited into my school choir at ten after my music teacher realized I could hold a tune, and would go on to use these skills for weddings and school performances when they called for it.

What’s your favorite building or piece of art on the Pratt campus?

The one sculpture that often catches my attention is S7 near the library. Sometimes when I walk past and let my imagination run wild, I see it as a portal to another world.

What was your most memorable class?

I really enjoyed my Fiction Writing class with Professor Evan Rehill. I not only got to create in a medium outside of architecture but also laughed a lot with the people in that class.

Do you have a favorite lunch spot near campus?

I think most memories of great lunches with friends happened at Dannee Thai on DeKalb.

What is the number one place you’d recommend in Brooklyn for a first-time visitor?

I was initially intimidated by Prospect Park but have since had beautiful experiences meandering through and getting a momentary break from the city (and the cherry blossoms are a big bonus). 

What is one piece of advice you received at Pratt that has been meaningful?

Most recently I was told that “Everyone dreams, so everyone tells stories.” So I want to be more sensitive to the stories in myself and everyone around me and figure out how to tell them as a creative.