The Alumni Association of the New York Academy of Art (AANYAA) is a volunteer-led organization that works to support and enrich the alumni community of the New York Academy of Art. The AANYAA promotes the work, news, and events of Academy alumni, coordinates community activities, and provides a forum in which to exchange ideas. The AANYAA Cabinet and Advisory Board encourage fellow alumni to contribute their time and resources to build a stronger community for the mutual benefit of all alumni in their professional endeavors.
2025-2027 CABINET OFFICERS
PRESIDENT Lisa Lebofsky, MFA 2006
Lisa is a nomadic plein air painter. She paints the susceptibility of nature, correlating it with human vulnerabilities. Lisa travels to areas around the globe that are subject to the impacts of climate change, to learn from the landscape and its inhabitants. In addition to solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally, she is the recipient of several awards and residencies. She is currently based in New York City as Director of DFN Projects while continuing to explore and paint.
VICE PRESIDENT Michelle Doll, MFA 2006
Born in Canton, Ohio, Michelle received her BFA from Kent State University. She is an adjunct professor at the New Jersey City University while also teaching private lessons. She has taught numerous workshops in cities such as Rome, Oslo and New York. In 2019 she received a fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Among other awards, Michelle received the Prince of Wales / Forbes Foundation Travel Grant in 2006, was granted Artist in Residence at Eden Rock on St. Barth’s in 2008 and received The Bennett Prize Honorable Mention in 2018. Michelle currently lives and works in Hoboken, NJ.
SECRETARY Dorit Eliyahu, MFA 2024
Dorit is a New York-based Israeli-American visual artist who is fascinated by the ways wildlife adjusts to the world we are building for ourselves. A recent graduate from the New York Academy of Art, her installations and paintings depict these wildlife (pigeons, rats, etc.) in observed situations that exemplify their utilization of our societal debris.
TREASURER Eric Price, MFA 2019
Eric is a Stephen and Palmina Pace Foundation, Inc. board member and served on the the Advisory Board of the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA. Prior to becoming a full time painter, Price held executive management and marketing positions in book publishing. Price lives in New York City and Provincetown, MA with his husband. Eric is represented by the Greg Salvatori Gallery in Provincetown, MA.
2024-2026 CABINET OFFICERS
ALUM-AT-LARGE Melanie Vote, MFA 1998
Melanie grew up on a functional farm in rural Iowa. She received her BFA from Iowa State University, and her MFA in Painting from the New York Academy of Art. Vote received a Pollock‐Krasner Foundation Grant in 2007, and has been awarded many residencies. Vote has taught at NYAA and NJCU, The New School and Pratt Institute, and has been a visiting artist at many other schools including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Her work has been exhibited nation-wide and internationally, notably in New York at Flowers Gallery, The Lodge Gallery, Sloan Fine Art, and DFN Gallery where she had her first solo exhibition in 2008. Melanie currently lives in New York City.
CONTINUITY OFFICER Stefania Salles Bruins, MFA 2023
Stef was born in Brazil to a Dutch father and a Brazilian mother, and spent her first dozen years in her native country. Following a master’s degree in Philosophy of Law in the Netherlands, Stef came to the US in 2007 on a Fulbright Scholarship to study law. She has practiced corporate law, specializing in private mergers and acquisitions. While she initially attended live figure drawing sessions to escape daily life, in 2019 she started oil painting and felt increasingly drawn to the medium. Stef has shown her work at several artist-owned galleries, and has recently located herself in Portland, Oregon, where she is focusing on her studio practice.
2026-2028 CABINET OFFICERS
ALUM-AT-LARGE Karim Machado-Aman, CFA 2024
Karim Machado-Aman is a figurative painter based in New York City. Originally from Mississauga, Ontario Canada, his works identify and examination the complex relationship between his heritage of being half Afghan, Half Portuguese and his diagnosis with bi-polar as a young adult. His cohabitation between these 3 worlds brings into question the lineage he inherited and the way he sees the world around him. He is included in collections throughout the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. He graduated from Sheridan College in the Visual and Creative Arts program in 2018. He graduated from the Certificate of Fine Arts Program at the New York Academy of Art in 2024 and The Master of Fine Arts program in 2026.
CONTINUITY OFFICER Elody Gyekis, MFA 2019
Elody Gyekis is a Pennsylvania-based artist whose paintings and mixed-media artworks revolve around nature, mythology, the human form, and gender. She earned her BFA at Penn State University and her MFA at the New York Academy of Art. She has had solo shows in Pennsylvania and New York, and been in group shows across the USA, Central America and Europe. Elody has completed residencies in Romania and France and has taught classes and workshops in the USA and Central America. She also organizes and designs many community murals and other large-scale public art projects. Currently, she is on the Continuing Education Faculty for the New York Academy of Art where she teaches online classes and workshops on painting and drawing.
ADVISORY BOARD
The "Advisory Board" for the Alumni Association of the New York Academy of Art is a team of volunteer alumni who donate their time to support the endeavors of the AANYAA. What differentiates the Advisory Board from the AANYAA Cabinet is that the aforementioned Cabinet, not the alumni community at large, votes these volunteers into their Advisory position.
The Advisory Board members may choose the duration of their terms within the Cabinet's 2-year term, as well as the amount of time they choose to volunteer per week. Each Advisory Board member must donate one hour per week at minimum and must attend at least one AANYAA meeting per month to hold their title.
While the nature and rigor of the Advisory Board members’ duties may also vary depending on the needs of the Cabinet, one quality remains consistent: their passion for voluntary support for the Cabinet, and, in turn, their fellow alums through the AANYAA.
If you would like to be a part of the AANYAA Advisory Board, let us know!
Charis Carmichael Braun, MFA 2008
Charis grew up in New Ulm, MN. As an arts admin, Charis has managed two galleries in New York City, worked for the New York Academy of Art, the Art Students League of New York (at their artist residency program The League Residency at Vyt), and is the manager of visual communications at Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center. As a painter, she received grant from the Huntington Arts Council for her Beekeeper Portrait Project in 2020, and was chosen as a Sing For Hope Piano Artist in 2016. She has taught Art History at Farmingdale State College NY, and Bethany Lutheran College, MN. Charis lives on Long Island, NY with her husband, cats, and delusions of completing her to-do lists.
Sarah Beatty, MFA 2012
Sarah grew up between Seattle, Salt Lake City, and New York. Her passion for travel and new experiences are the primary source of her inspiration. She draws and paints landscapes, interiors and portraits with an eye for evocative color, abstract shapes and surrealistic narrative. She also works with graphic design and animated media and enjoys finding new ways to work with traditional techniques in a contemporary digital context.
Anna Kraske, MFA 2025
Anna is based in New York and Washington DC. She has exhibited her work around the New York area for several years, in which she is currently examining the history of air-bombing as a weapon of war.
Jacqueline Cristina, CFA 2020
Jacqueline is a visual artist whose formal training spans multiple institutions and disciplines. They earned a BFA in Fine Art with concentrations in Drawing and Painting, alongside minors in Psychology and Metalsmithing from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, graduating with Cum Laude honors. They continued their studies at Studio Incamminati and later at the New York Academy of Art, where they completed a Certificate in Fine Arts and participated in a selective undergraduate residency.
Their work has been exhibited in a variety of settings, from academic showcases to artist-run spaces, live performance venues, and regional galleries. Notable appearances include exhibitions at the New York Academy of Art, Little Berlin in Philadelphia, VERSA Gallery in Chattanooga, and performances at The Slipper Room and O’Flaghtery’s in New York City. Their practice has also been featured in Pikchur Magazine.
Arielle Tesoriero, MFA 2022
Arielle is a painter and sculptor from the rural Eastern Shore of Maryland. Tesoriero currently lives and works in New York City. In 2022, Tesoriero was awarded the Kylemore Abbey Artist Residency through the New York Academy of Art and was also selected as a finalist for the New American Paintings Emerging Artist Grant. Her work has been featured in New American Paintings, The Untitled Magazine, and Create Magazine, among others. Tesoriero's work has been exhibited across the east coast of America, and internationally.
LEADERSHIP LEGACIES
We are proud of the passion our friends and colleagues have dedicated to their fellow Academy Alums over the years, and are grateful they worked to strengthen the connections between their fellow alums.
Presidents Emeriti:
Lisa Lebofsk (23-present), Tabitha Whitley (19-23), Cory Dixon (15-19), Charis Carmichael Braun (12-15), Debra Goertz (06-12), Bruce Wallace, Patricia P Anderson, Marlies Ihmels-Herget
Vice Presidents Emeriti:
Carlos Bautista, Bonnie DeWitt, Renee Bovenzi (12-15)
Secretaries Emeriti:
Charis Carmichael Braun (23-25), Lisa Lebofsky (20-23), Elizabeth Misitano (19), Mara Rokach Kujil, Theresa Kasun (12-15)
Treasurers Emeriti:
Eric Price (25-26), Zachary Lank (23-25), Carrie-Ann Bracco (20-23), Christopher Law (15-19), Barbara Israel Bortniker (12-15)
Continuity Officers:
Stefania Salles-Bruins (24-26)
Alums-At-Large:
Melanie Vote (24-26)
Officers, various:
Brooks Frederick (12-15), Isabelle Garbani, Margarita Friedman (06-12), Chris O'Connor (06-12), Jim D'Andrea, Paula Holland, Glen Kessler
Advisors:
James Xavier Barbour, Robert Dale Williams, Jennifer Flexner Reinhardt, Elizabeth Misitano (21-23), Helena La Rota López, Carrie-Ann Bracco (12-15), Charis Carmichael Braun (21, 23-25), Jacque White (23-25), Lauren Amalia Redding (21-23), Elena Rodz, Eric Price, John Carruthers (12-15), Seth Ruggles Hiler (12-15), Bonnie DeWitt (12-15), Michelle Doll (12-15), Lisa Lebofsky (12-15), Michael Gibson, Patrizia Vignola, Breanna Cee Martins (12-15), Tun Myaing (12-15), Christopher Porter, Luigi Cicala, Robert Sebastiano, Jeffrey Wood, Ros Winner Sterling
Alumni Liaison at NYAA:
Michael Smith (20-23), Lauren Anders (19-20), Heidi Elbers, Charis Carmichael Braun (11)