Portraits of 22 distinguished Emerson College alumni appeared across the Boston campus over Presidents’ Day weekend “to shine a light on those who came before and spark inspiration,” college administrators announced in a community-wide email last week.
The “Distinguished Alumni Portraits” project has been enacted to expand and acknowledge the accomplishments of more alumni. In a statement to The Beacon, a college spokesperson said that more than 20 additional posters are in production to continue the project across campus. The Emerson community can submit suggestions for alumni through a Google Form.
Each display encompasses a recent photograph of the alumni, an older photograph from their time at Emerson, and a summary of some major accomplishments. Some alumni include makeup artist and entrepreneur Bobbi Brown in the Little Building and photographer Gray Malin outside of the Iwasaki Library’s entrance.
Dawn Steinberg ‘83, executive vice president of Worldwide Talent and Casting at Sony Pictures Television, is featured in the project. When reflecting on her time at Emerson, she said she remembers it as “a place that let you do anything.”
Steinberg emphasized the skills she learnt at Emerson outside of coursework, but also how to interact in workplaces and professional etiquette.
“The biggest thing that Emerson helped with was tools of communication, which I think to this day are very important and probably a lost art,” Steinberg said in an interview with The Beacon.
The project aligns with Extraordinary Emerson 2030’s initiatives to strengthen relationships with alumni, develop better data systems, and improve communication within the college, according to a college spokesperson. In a statement to The Beacon, the spokesperson referred to the project as “a high-impact project at a very low cost,” though declined to specify the cost.
Alexander Clark, a junior writing, literature and publishing major, criticized the project, saying he believed its funding could have been allocated for something that benefits current students more.
“I don’t think small projects like that are really going to make the difference,” he said. “It seems to me that the priorities of the campus administration are not necessarily in the right place.”
The college said the project was a collaborative effort between several departments.
“[It was] developed, written, designed, and planned by our staff across Marketing & Communications and Institutional Advancement, with support from Archives and Facilities,” the statement read.
Freshman writing, literature and publishing major James Mayes said he was initially surprised when he saw the portraits in Little Building. He explained that he felt the location of them was less than ideal.
“I have not read the full signs because it is a passing-through area,” he said, noting that the portraits may have less impact because people aren’t stopping to read them.
Mayes said the Dining Center or The Max could be a better location for alumni posters because people are not on the go as much there.
Portraits are currently hung in the Tufte Building, Walker Building, Visitor’s Center, and Little Building. The administration wrote in the community email that it hopes to display more portraits at the Boston campus and at Emerson Los Angeles.
Out of the 22 alumni featured, 59% of the portraits are of white men and 27% of white women. The other three portraits are of a Latina woman, a Latino man, and a Black man. 23% of the portraits are of LGBTQ+ members.
According to Emerson’s online factbook, which hasn’t been updated since the 2023-2024 academic year, white students made up 55% of the student population, and 60% of the total school population were women. Despite this, 86% of the portraits include white alumni, and 67% are men.
No alumni of Asian descent were featured in the project. Five percent of the student body are Asian, according to the factbook. An Asian-American alum that could have been included is the famous actor Brandon Lee, who played in the 1994 film “The Crow.”
The project also did not include Black women. Nicola Yoon, a Black woman author who wrote the young adult bestseller “Everything, Everything,” could have been featured to add more diversity.
The college noted in a statement to The Beacon that diversity in those represented spans across race, gender, and sexuality. The college said that they will continue to work on showcasing diversity across the alumni represented and continue to take suggestions on who students want to be included in the project.
“We fully intend for this exhibit to be representative of the diversity at Emerson and look forward to featuring more of our distinguished alumni soon,” the statement from a college spokesperson read.
Some of the alumni featured in Walker Building are Glenn Jones ‘99, Emmy Award-winning reporter for NBC10 Boston and NECN Sonia Rincón ‘01, an assignment reporter at WABC-TV and a former anchor at 1010 WINS who has won multiple awards for her work.
Miguel Cervantes ‘99, who played in “Hamilton” on Broadway, and Eric Cornell ‘05, who has won a Tony Award as a Broadway producer, are featured on posters in the Tufte Building.
Tara Sandler ‘84, co-founder of Pie Town Productions, is featured on a poster in the Visitor’s Center. She has worked on shows such as HGTV’s “House Hunters” and “Flip or Flop.”
Junior business of creative enterprises major Asa Roberts said he feels that the project is a positive addition to the school and its history.
“If you take the time and read [the posters], they’re definitely interesting,” Roberts said. “If you don’t actually take the time [and] are interested in it, it’s not going to be for you.”
According to a college spokesperson, the college is pleased to have received “overwhelmingly positive feedback from students, faculty, staff, and alumni.” The spokesperson said the college looks forward to continuing to spotlight “the inspiring careers of alums working in a variety of industries.”
