Pratt’s Alumni Achievement Awards (AAA) recognizes outstanding alumni who have distinguished themselves in their fields, honoring creatives, artists, and professionals who break boundaries, defy odds, and make statements through their work and lives. This year’s awards ceremony will honor three exceptional alumni, nominated and selected by the Pratt community and a panel of past AAA winners, at a luncheon at Manhattan Penthouse on Friday, March 13.
This year, Alumni Achievement Awards will be presented to Nanette Carter, MFA Fine Arts ’78; Vann Graves, MS Communications Design ’96; and Lian Farhi, MS City and Regional Planning ’16. The awards ceremony will be emceed by 2018 Alumni Achievement Award winner Mahogany L. Browne, MFA Writing ’16.
This event will also honor the class of 1976, celebrating 50 years since their time at Pratt, their accomplishments, and their vital role in Pratt’s ongoing success. Attendees from the class of 1976 will receive a commemorative gift.
Learn more about the 2026 honorees below.
Lifetime Achievement: Nanette Carter, MFA Fine Arts ’78
The Lifetime Achievement Award honors a Pratt graduate whose work has challenged existing paradigms over the course of a prominent career.
Nanette Carter was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1954 and grew up in Montclair, New Jersey. From an early age it was clear that she would become an artist. Carter says that her first studio was in her bedroom on her bed, where she would draw and create collages. She received her BA at Oberlin College in Ohio, majoring in studio art and art history, and then studied abroad during her junior year at La Accademia di Belle Arte in Perugia, Italy. She attended Pratt Institute for her MFA, majoring in printmaking and minoring in drawing. Today Carter is known for her collaged abstract paintings on Mylar and says that she works with intangible themes around contemporary issues. Texture, form, and line help deliver Carter’s themes, with semiotics—how meaning is created using these three elements—playing an integral role.
Carter is in many corporate and museum collections that include the Baltimore Museum of Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Saint Louis Art Museum, Columbus Museum of Art, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana, Cuba, Yale University Art Gallery, Montclair Art Museum, and more.
She has exhibited across the country and internationally, in Dakar, Senegal; Lome, Togo; Venice and Perugia, Italy; London, England; Kyoto and Osaka, Japan; Damascus and Aleppo, Syria; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Havana, Cuba; and more. Carter has received numerous grants, which include the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, and Anonymous Was A Woman.
Most recently she has been inducted into the National Academy of Design and Guild Hall’s Academy of Arts in East Hampton, NY.
From 2001 to 2021, Carter taught drawing at Pratt. She lives and works in Manhattan and is represented by Berry Campbell in NYC.
Impact: Vann Graves, MS Communications Design ’96
The Impact Award recognizes a Pratt graduate for contributions that have made a deep and meaningful positive impact.
Dr. R. Vann Graves became executive director of the Brandcenter at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2018. The master’s program has been named the number one graduate school program in the U.S. in both 2024 and 2025 by The One Club for Creativity. In 2025, one out of every three Super Bowl spots was made by Brandcenter alums, one-third of whom graduated within the last five years. Under his leadership, the VCU Brandcenter continues to be a global leader in advertising and brand education, forging robust ties within the advertising industry.
Prior to the Brandcenter, Graves served as a chief creative officer at J. Walter Thompson; EVP, global executive creative director at McCann; VP, creative director at BBDO; and cofounder at FL+G, a full-service branding agency in Denver. His work has been recognized with numerous industry awards, including a Cannes Titanium Lion, a Grand London International Award, a Grand Clio, and a D&AD Graphite Pencil. Graves has also served as the dean of the Cannes Creative Academy.
Passionate about harnessing creativity and innovation to tackle complex business challenges, Graves has engaged in nonprofit endeavors such as the Ad Council’s Creative Review Committee and The One Club for Creativity’s Faculty Advisory Committee. In addition to the Institute for Contemporary Art, he currently serves on the boards of Hamilton Lane, PBS – Virginia Public Media, the ANA Educational Foundation, Brady: United Against Gun Violence, and the Boys & Girls Club of Central Virginia.
A Fulbright Scholar, Graves holds degrees from Howard University, Pratt Institute, Harvard University, and the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a decorated combat veteran, husband, and father.
Rising Star: Lian Farhi, MS City and Regional Planning ’16
The Rising Star Award recognizes a Pratt graduate for significant success and promise of sustained contributions to their creative industry.
Lian Farhi is an urban planner and designer who explores the interrelationships between the public realm and mobility. She possesses a multidisciplinary background and fourteen years of experience practicing architecture, urban design, and multi-modal transportation planning in the private and public sectors. Farhi has designed, implemented, and managed a range of real-world projects to create safe, livable, and future-ready streets and has conducted quality-of-life studies to quantify the benefits of public realm improvements on community health, safety, and economic vitality. She has broad experience in developing vision plans, design guidelines, and robust outreach and community engagement processes. An expert and thought leader on streetscape and urban design, she has contributed to numerous industry best-practice guides.
At TYLin, she leads the New York Transportation Planning department. Before that, she served as an urban designer for NYC DOT in the Public Space unit. Farhi participated in the 2018 class of the Emerging Leaders in Transportation at the NYU Rudin Center for Transportation and the 2023–24 CORO Leadership NY program and serves on the board of WTS-GNY. Farhi also has international experience in transportation planning, working on the design of Tel Aviv’s mass transit system and conducting research in Europe for NTA.
To attend this year’s awards ceremony, register for the event. Learn more about the Alumni Achievement Awards and explore previous honorees.
There are many ways for Pratt alumni to stay involved with Pratt. Help build community among alumni and connect with current students through the Office of Alumni Engagement. Email alumni@pratt.edu for more information.