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Christopher D. Shyer has been appointed to Pratt’s Board of Trustees.
Joan Barry McCormick has been appointed Pratt’s new Vice President for Institutional Advancement.
Eyewear Entrepreneur Christopher D. Shyer Elected to Board of Trustees
Joan Barry McCormick Named Vice President for Institutional Advancement
The Board of Trustees has named Christopher D. Shyer as its newest member. Shyer, whose appointment was effective December 9, 2015, was also named to the Board’s Development Committee.
Joan Barry McCormick has been named as the Institute’s Vice President for Institutional Advancement. McCormick assumed the position on January 11, succeeding Nancy Walker, of Interim Solutions, who has served as Interim Vice President since April 2015.
Shyer is designer, president, and owner of Zyloware Eyewear, a leading manufacturer of innovative eyewear based in Port Chester, New York, and Shenzhen, China. With 26 years’ experience designing and marketing eyewear, and extensive expertise in manufacturing, branding, business development, licensing, and general management, Shyer has transformed Zyloware into a top supplier to retailers including Pearle Vision, Walmart, Costco, Sears, and Cohen’s Fashion Optical. Before Zyloware, Shyer was a brand manager for Lever Brothers Company. Shyer serves on the boards of the Historic House Trust of New York City, the Acting Company, GLSEN (the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network), and Public Health Solutions. He is also a member of the Leadership Council for VisionSpring and an active member of the Young Presidents Organization. In addition, Shyer is the coauthor, with Marlene Fanta Shyer, of the award-winning memoir Not Like Other Boys: Growing Up Gay: A Mother and Son Look Back (Houghton Mifflin, 1996). The book, which was recently rereleased for Amazon Kindle, received the 1997 outstanding book award from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America. Shyer received his M.B.A. in marketing and finance from Columbia University, where he was president of the American Marketing Association. He also holds a B.A. in economics and political science from the University of Vermont.
McCormick worked most recently at New York University’s Stern School of Business, where she served as the Associate Dean for Development and Alumni Relations. Prior to that, she held various fundraising positions at Rutgers University, where she was responsible for securing transformational gifts of $5 million or more. “With Joan’s outstanding past success in fundraising, I am confident that she will effectively lead us in achieving our ambitious goals,” said President Thomas F. Schutte. “I look forward to working closely with her and our Board of Trustees so that Pratt can continue to provide the best possible educational experience for the next generation of creative professionals.” In addition to her development background in higher education, McCormick has experience initiating and developing successful fundraising campaigns for other types of nonprofit institutions including the National Kidney Foundation, where she created the organization’s first-ever major gifts program. McCormick holds a Master of Public Administration from Kean University and earned a Mini-MBA™ in Strategic Healthcare Management and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism/Mass Media, both from Rutgers. “I am proud to join Pratt in this role at such a critical time in the institution’s history,” said McCormick. “It is an exciting opportunity to build on the momentum of President Schutte and to work with the entire community at Pratt to support its talented students and prestigious faculty.”