Commencement Speakers
About CUNY BA's Student Speaker
Emma DeGroff is a graduating CUNY BA student from Hunter College with Areas of Concentration in Social Justice and Performing Arts. She has been deeply involved in the CUNY BA community, serving as a mentor in the Peer Mentor Program, as a Student Ambassador, and in a leadership role for the CUNY BA Student Leadership Council, as Director of Communications. If Emma looks familiar, you may have seen her at a recruitment event, or even more exciting, in Subway ads, on Youtube, or even in the back of taxis, as she has represented CUNY BA in two advertisements for “A Degree for every Dream” campaign. A Thomas Smith Fellow, she danced at this fall’s celebration of 1,000 Fellows. This summer, she is interning at DNIS Law Firm, learning about Immigration Law. She plans to go to law school.
About CUNY BA's Commencement Speaker
Originally from St. Andrews, Grenada, Mr. Mahon's work unites art and science. Studying Biomedical Communication, he created his CUNY BA in Medical Illustration. After continuing his studies at the Art Students League of New York focusing on anatomy and design, he then attended the world’s first medical illustration program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, receiving his Master’s of Art in Medical and Biological Illustration. As a Medical Illustrator, he combines visual communication and biomedical knowledge to make complex science and medicine more accessible and actionable for a diverse range of audiences and providers. His expertise in Art, Science, and Medical content have allowed him to collaborate with leading researchers, radiologists, anatomists, surgeons, and computer scientists to create cutting-edge content for medical research, training, and clinical practice. He has been a Medical Il
lustrator and XR designer (extended reality) at a world-renowned Trauma Center. He has designed Virtual Reality surgical training simulations for the industry leader in VR surgical training, and currently serves as the Manager of research projects at the Center for Medical Innovations in Extended Reality (MIXR) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He is the principal Medical Illustrator at Mahon Illustrations LLC (check out his website).
About CUNY BA's Faculty Speaker
maura nguyen donohue (she/they) director MFA/Dance at Hunter College/CUNY, examines the planetary impact of disposability cultures through various mediums, primarily installation-based performances. Her ongoing Tides Project uses reclaimed plastics and oceanic detritus to examine the legacies of bodies ecological and diasporic and has been presented/supported by Women in Motion, La MaMa & LMCC Arts Center on Governor's Island. maura’s recent published works include “An Arrival,” in Tiger Hands: A Dance Document; “Carrying the Torch: Trojan Women Re-finding the Groove” in The Scholar & Feminist Online; and “reclamation of the disposable,” in Dancing in the Aftermath of Anti-Asian Violence. A writer-in-residence for Danspace Project’s 2021 and 2022 Dream of the Audience platforms, donohue’s writing has also appeared in American Theater, Culturebot, Dance Insider, Dance Magazine, Imaginings Journal, Movement Research's Performance Journal, Women & Performance Journal and Contemporary Directions in Asian American Dance. maura has been facilitating, curating, producing, and leading public conversations for a variety of under-represented artists in the US, Asia, and Europe for 3 decades. From 95-05 her dance theater troupe MND/inmixedcompany was commissioned and produced regularly in NYC and toured North America, Europe, and Asia. She has been a member of La MaMa’s Great Jones Rep Experimental Theater since 1997, most recently performing in works directed by Ivica Buljian, Motus, Dan Safer, and Zishan Urgulu, as well as performing in the work of choreographer devynn emory. maura often serves on artist advisory councils, boards, and steering committees such as NY Dance & Performance (Bessies) Awards, Dance/NYC, and The Field. At Hunter College, she serves as chair of the Arts & Humanities Curriculum Committee and co-chair of the Public Scholarship and Research Committee for the Presidential Taskforce for Racial Equity (now the Racial Equity Standing Committee)