Arthur Gensler, Rosalyn Cama, and Christopher Hyland to Receive Honorary Doctorate Degrees

New York, NY – May 1, 2014 – New York School of Interior Design (NYSID) is pleased to announce that Arthur Gensler, founder of Gensler, will be the keynote speaker at the College’s 2014 commencement ceremony, which will take place on Thursday, May 22, 2014, 4pm at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. NYSID is proud to graduate 163 candidates this year: 45 Master of Fine Arts, 18 Master of Professional Studies, 50 Bachelor of Fine Arts, and 50 Associate in Applied Science candidates.

Gensler will receive the College’s Honorary Doctorate degree as will Rosalyn Cama, president and principal designer of CAMA, Inc. and Christopher Hyland, founding president of Christopher Hyland, Inc. and editor-in-chief and publisher of Hyland magazine.

“We are so pleased that Art Gensler will be our commencement speaker this year,” said NYSID president David Sprouls. “Gensler is one of the top architecture and design firms in the country, if not the world, and under Art’s leadership the firm has designed countless elegant and functional spaces, including our very own Graduate Center.”

Keynote Speaker and Honoree: Arthur Gensler

An architect by profession, Arthur Gensler founded Gensler, the global architecture, design, planning and strategic consulting firm in 1965. From a small office in San Francisco, the firm has grown into one of the world’s leading architecture and design groups, with 3,000 people in 40 global locations. Gensler practice areas include workplace, retail, hospitality, education, brand design, and aviation and transportation. The firm has designed notable interior and architectural projects globally, such as the Shanghai Tower, the second tallest building in the world.

Gensler is a graduate of Cornell University and currently serves on the Advisory Council of Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. He has been a visiting professor at Cornell, the University of California at Berkeley, and Arizona State University.  A founding member of the National Committee on Interior Architecture, Gensler has been elected a fellow in the American Institute of Architecture (AIA) and the International Interior Design Association (IIDA).

He is also a trustee of the Buck Institute for Aging, the California College of the Arts, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Honoree: Rosalyn Cama

Rosalyn Cama, FASID, EDAC, is the president and principal interior designer of the evidence-based planning and design firm CAMA Inc. in New Haven, Connecticut. CAMA, Inc.’s mission is to partner with healthcare providers and their architecture consultants in the creation of interior environments that improve outcomes. CAMA partners with the interior design industry to develop expanded product offerings for interior environments that enrich the human experience.  

Cama has been a practicing healthcare designer for 30 years, graduating from the University of Connecticut. She has worked on projects throughout the United States, including Yale-New Haven Hospital, Baystate Health System, Dublin Methodist Hospital of Ohio Health, The American Cancer Society and Hope Lodge, and the University Medical Center at Princeton. She appears frequently as a speaker on evidence-based healthcare design at meetings and conventions internationally. She has also written and published numerous articles on the subject as well as the book, Evidence-Based Healthcare Design (John Wiley & Sons, 2009), which was published in association with the American Society of Interior Designers.

Honoree: Christopher Hyland

Christopher Hyland’s career has traversed the worlds of travel, art, architecture, design, sport, politics, textiles, and publishing. A lifelong student, Hyland received Honorary Doctorate degrees from Savannah College of Art and Design and from Kiev National Economic University.

He is founding president of Christopher Hyland, Inc., the worldwide purveyor of fine textiles, wallcoverings, accessories, lighting, rugs, and other home furnishings serving the residential and commercial markets. As deputy national political director of Bill Clinton’s first campaign, he was originator of the first Presidential Transition Conference on Design, which led to the establishment of the National Design Awards. Hyland is co-chairman of Holiday House, the designer show house benefiting Evelyn Lauder’s Women’s Breast Cancer Foundation. He is also editor in chief and publisher of HYLAND, a digital design and lifestyle magazine that covers high-end residential decoration, design, architecture, art, travel, fashion, cuisine, and charity.

This is a private event. For press seats, contact jdressler@nysid.edu or call 212-472-1500, ext. 432.