CCAD Alumni Awards

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Columbus College of Art & Design graduates make work that changes the world. They create businesses (and make significant contributions to existing ones), lead nonprofits, excel in their creative practices, and help guide the next generation of artists and designers. (That’s just the start, of course.) Every year, we honor a selection of our outstanding alumni with Alumni Awards. Members of the CCAD family and general public can nominate an alum for recognition in the categories of Arts Educator, Commitment to Service, Creative Entrepreneur, Emerging Leader, and the Joseph V. Canzani Alumni Award for Excellence.
 

 

 


Watch the 2022 Alumni Awards

 

 


 

The 2022 Alumni Awards winners are: 

Arts Educator Award ​​​​

Kymberly



Kymberly C. Moreland-Garnett
(Fine Arts, 1991) 

During her 22 years as a fine arts teacher at Trinity Preparatory School in Winter Park, Florida, Moreland-Garnett has led foundations, printmaking, and advanced printmaking courses, hosted international school trips, volunteered in her community, and advanced her own skills through various professional development activities.  In addition to many years of active participation in professional organizations, Moreland-Garnett received the 2009 H. Benton Ellis Award for Excellence in Teaching and the following year was named Middle School Art Educator of the Year by the Florida Art Education Association. Earlier this year, the FAEA named her the June Hinckley Art Educator Award of Excellence winner, honoring her for submitting the most entries for its K–12 exhibition. Moreland-Garnett’s classroom is known as a common gathering place for her students, both to work and because she is seen as a trusted, caring adult on campus. 

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Commitment to Service Award

Lori

 

Lori Sayre
(Advertising & Graphic Design, 1995)

Lori  has won numerous awards for her professional work in advertising, including taking home a bronze award in the 2009 Clio National Awards. She also is a recipient of awards from the Medical Marketing Association and the Columbus Society of Communicating Arts. Now at Quantum Health, Sayre’s previous employers include Diamond Cellar Holdings; Lord, Sullivan & Yoder; and GSW Advertising. At GSW, she was part of the original team to create the “Pink Tank,” a strategic and creative division focused on marketing healthcare to women. Beyond her paid work, Sayre has volunteered her time with New Directions Career Center, whose efforts she supports by designing marketing materials and facilitating email communications, as well as gathering donations of household goods and clothes for the women it serves.

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Creative Entrepreneur Award
​​​​

Cathy

 

Cathy Ann Johnson-Conforto
(Illustration, 1989)

Johnson-Conforto is CEO and Creative Director for Luv-it Studio, responsible for collaborations across multiple platforms including marketing, creative ideation, retail outlets and messaging for service sectors. In addition, she cofounded—with her son Clinton Love Johnson—Soul Ah-Mazing, a media platform that celebrates the human family in all its diversity. Johnson-Conforto recently illustrated the critically hailed children’s book Stand Up! 10 Mighty Women Who Made a Change.

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Emerging Leader Award​​​​​

Josh

 

Joshua Walz
(Advertising & Graphic Design, 2016)

After graduating from CCAD, Walz started his career at ZoCo as a graphic designer with a focus on user experience and digital design. Over the past six years, he’s worked on numerous UX projects ranging from web design to agile products and today he leads the UX focus at ZoCo, working with clients, improving processes, and coaching their team. Walz is a longtime volunteer with the Columbus Society of Communicating Arts, serving as the organization’s vice president of education in 2017-2019, and in 2021, he took home an Award of Excellence from the CSCA in the Interactive category. In addition to his work at ZoCo, Walz is the designer for his family’s business, SBS Property Management.

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Joseph V. Canzani Alumni Award for Excellence​​

Albert

 



Albert Wong
(Fine Arts, 1970)

Born in Nanjing, China and raised in Hong Kong, Wong has had a long and fruitful career in art and education. An illustration and design professor at the University of Texas for 36 years, Wong has directly shared his knowledge and experience with hundreds of students over the decades. In addition to his work in the classroom, Wong, a painter, illustrator, and graphic designer, has participated in individual and group exhibitions around the world; has work in more than a dozen corporate and museum collections in the U.S. and Hong Kong; has created advertisements for corporate and nonprofit clients; has written academic papers on such subjects as calligraphy, graphic design, and haiku; has made academic presentations on Chinese and Japanese culture; has had work in a number of books and periodicals; and has translated the work of other art historians.

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CCAD Core Values Award
 

David Brame

 

 

 

David Brame
(Illustration, 2005)

Brame has been consistently working as a comic book illustrator and cultivating his own Afro-Futuristic character, Dusty Funk, via personal work and gallery installations for the past several years. Brame’s ongoing work in comics explores issues of race and identity in the context of the American South, Black Gothica, mysticism, storytelling, and the African diaspora. In 2021, Brame illustrated the Eisner Award-nominated After the Rain; that same year, another book he illustrated, Lionman, was included in the Afro-Futurism period room installation "Before Yesterday We Could Fly" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.  In 2020, Brame contributed illustrations for an animation as part of Sanford Biggers: Codeswitch at the Bronx Museum, and he also produced The Struggle, a scholarly work for Black youth published by the University of Minnesota Press.

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Past award recipients

  • 2021 Peter Wachtel (Industrial Design, 1990) Arts Educator Award
  • 2021 Rachael Santillan (Media Studies Still-Based, 2000) Commitment to Service Award
  • 2021 Max Ulichney (Media Studies Time-Based, 2004) Creative Entrepreneur Award
  • 2021 Kilee Price (Fine Arts, 2016) Emerging Leader Award
  • 2021 Ron Miller (Illustration, 1970) Joseph V. Canzani Alumni Award for Excellence
  • 2021 Lara Alsoudani Weeks (Advertising & Graphic Design, 2015) CCAD Core Values Award
  • 2020 William Potter (Fine Arts, 1995) Arts Educator Award
  • 2020 Krista Sison (Fashion Design, 2013) Commitment to Service Award
  • 2020 Emily Kellett (Industrial Design, 2016) and Brian Kellett (Media Studies Still-Based, 2007) Creative Entrepreneur Award
  • 2020 Lalese “Lolly” Stamps (Advertising & Graphic Design, 2017) Emerging Leader Award
  • 2020 Douglas Bell (Illustration, 1989) Joseph V. Canzani Alumni Award for Excellence
  • 2019 Manjari Sharma (Media Studies, Photography, 2004) Canzani Award for Excellence
  • 2019 Bob Barner (Illustration Major, Advertising Minor, 1970) Core Values Award
  • 2019 Michael G. Manes (BFA Painting/Art History, 2009) Emerging Leader Award
  • 2019 Soo Sunny Park (Fine Arts, 1998) Arts Educator Award
  • 2019 Susana Madrid (Fashion Design, 2010) Creative Entrepreneur Award
  • 2019 Paul Richmond (Illustration, 2002) Committment to Service Award
  • 2018 Tony West (Illustration, 1989) Canzani Award for Excellence
  • 2018 AG Ford (Illustration, 2007) Core Values Award
  • 2018 Ali Prater (Advertising & Graphic Design, 2013) Emerging Leader Award
  • 2018 Aubrey Jewel Rodgers (Time-Based Media, 2000) Arts Educator Award
  • 2018 Sugandh G. Agrawal (Industrial Design, 2005) Creative Entreprenuer Award
  • 2018 Michael McFalls (Fine Arts, 1998) Commitment to Service Award
  • 2017 Michael Flechtner (Fine Arts, 1981) Canzani Award for Excellence
  • 2017 Colleen Clark (Illustration, 2014) Emerging Leader Award
  • 2017 Marshall Shorts (Industrial Design & Advertising & Graphic Design, 2006) Commitment to Service Award
  • 2017 Jon Keith Swindell (Illustration, 1973) Arts Educator Award
  • 2017 Paula Froehle (Fine Arts, 1987) Creative Entrepreneur Award
  • 2016 Derek Fansler (Fine Arts, 1995)
  • 2015 Steven Hubbard (Time Based Media Studies, 2010)
  • 2014 Inka Essenhigh (Fine Arts, 1991)
  • 2013 Chad Hunt (Photography, 1994)
  • 2012 Dan Scanlon (Illustration, 1998)
  • 2011 Nathan Greno (Illustration, 1996)
  • 2010 Rosanne Percivalle (Illustration, 1980) 
  • 2009 Aaron Szymanski (Industrial Design, 1991)
  • 2008 Joan Hall (Fine Arts, 1974)
  • 2007 Ron Tsang (Industrial Design, 1983)
  • 2006 Jeff Link (Advertising & Graphic Design, 1969) (awarded posthumously)
  • 2003 William "BJ" Van de Velde (Advertising & Graphic Design, 1961)
  • 2002 Charles O'Connor (Industrial Design, 1962)
  • 2001 Dean Mitchell (Illustration, 1980)
  • 2000 Edmund Kuehn (Fine Arts, 1938)
  • 1999 Wucius Wong (1965)
  • 1994 Dean Mitchell (Illustration, 1980)
  • 1994 James C. Lutz (Advertising & Graphic Design, 1978)
  • 1994 Linzy Randolph
  • 1993 Mary Lou Alpert (1956 – 60)
  • 1992 Ruth Anne Johnson (Illustration, 1965 – 70)
  • 1992 Chris Snell (Advertising & Graphic Design, 1972)
  • 1991 Daniel Thomas Chrzanowski (Illustration, 1970)
  • 1991 George Gaadt (Illustration, 1966)
  • 1991 Dean Kette (1959)
  • 1991 George Kinney
  • 1991 Ann Rothan (Fine Arts, 1992)
  • 1990 Arthur Klemushin (Illustration, 1966)
  • 1990 Doug Anderson (Illustration, 1942) 
  • 1990 Ming Fay (Industrial Design, 1965)
  • 1990 James F. Lutz (Advertising & Graphic Design, 1978)
  • 1990 Beverly Jane Niffenegger (Advertising & Graphic Design, 1977)
  • 1990 Marcia Tabler (Retail Advertising, 1974)
  • 1989 Kenneth Batista (Fine Arts, 1975)
  • 1989 Robert Bender (Advertising & Graphic Design, 1966)
  • 1989 George Radway (Fine Arts, 1938)
  • 1989 Clyde Singer (1934)
  • 1989 Wucius Wong (1965)
  • 1988 Stanley Ray Corfman (Advertising & Graphic Design, 1960)
  • 1988 James Grimes (Industrial Design, 1963)
  • 1988 Margaret Lynn (1935)
  • 1988 Thomas O'Donnell (1955)
  • 1988 Jack Shinn (Fine Arts, 1942)
  • 1988 Marilyn Skeffington (Advertising & Graphic Design, 1969)
  • 1987 Frank Hoffelt
  • 1987 Dorothy Neill (1937)
  • 1987 Charles O'Connor (Industrial Design, 1962)
  • 1987 Bernard Stockwell (Industrial Design, 1948)
  • 1987 B. J. Van de Velde (Advertising & Graphic Design, 1961)
  • 1982 Jerry McDaniel (Illustration, 1957)