Congratulations 2021 RISD CE certificate grads

RISD CE Certificate Graduation Celebration

Congratulations on completing your RISD CE Certificate!

The entire Continuing Education team and the whole Rhode Island School of Design community is so proud and amazed at your achievement. You overcame the disruption, difficulty and stress that COVID-19 presented and were still able to complete your certificate – this is an amazing accomplishment!

Certificate Graduates

Graphic Design

Hope Barney
Shannon Davis
Maria Prus

Interactive Design

Lucinda Gerhard
Tyler Kowalski
Carly Lohr
Sabrina Lombardi
Denni Zhao

Interior Design

Lucia Bustamante-Reavely
Preston Cottrell
Ahleah Coughlan
Tara Henriques
Victoria Hill
Paula Manseau
Jennifer Parissi-Forti
Madison Van Wylen

Jewelry and Light Metals

Bethany Deluca
Jackie Lee
Sissi Liu
Thomas Peirce
Ramya Subramanian
Jaclyn Trudel

Natural Science Illustration

Marguerite Cass
Katrin Marancik
Aleksandra Phillips
Lynn Zimmerman

Painting Studies

Karen Carr
Barbara Von Eckardt
Catherine Waung

Photography

Heather Caunt-Nulton
Celeste Estevez
Donald Grace
Carly Tice
Joshua Wright

Student Work

Click thumbnails for artist credit/larger view.

Teacher of Excellence Award

Taleen Batalian, drawing and design foundation courses

Taleen Batalian is an artist and educator who has taught for RISD Continuing Education for more than 10 years. In addition, she teaches and serves as a visiting artist at colleges, art museums and arts organizations including Providence College, Wheaton College and the Newport Art Museum. As an artist, she manages an independent studio practice and exhibits her work nationally. Recent projects include Waves and Shadows, a collaborative video installation; Disassemble, a performance installation at the RISD Museum; and a solo exhibition, Graft, a site-specific installation of sculptural garments, paintings and video at Wheaton College. Batalian is the recipient of grants from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA) and the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Newport County. Previously she was director of education for Providence CityArts for Youth. She holds a BFA in fashion design from Massachusetts College of Art.

Certificate Graduate Speaker

Janelle Blakely Photopoulos, Interior Design

Janelle Blakely Photopoulos, RISD CE certificate graduate

Janelle Blakely Photopoulos is a 2017 graduate of RISD Continuing Educations’s Interior Design certificate program and the owner and creative director of Blakely Interior Design, a high-end residential design firm located in North Kingstown, RI with projects up and down the East Coast. After a successful corporate career in marketing, in 2012 she enrolled in RISD CE’s certificate program in Interior Design. For five years she juggled design school with three young children, all while developing her design business, which was named the 2020 Rhode Island Small Business Association’s Woman-Owned Business of the Year. Blakely Photopoulos is the founder of the Rhode Island chapter of the non-profit Savvy Giving by Design, and also sits on the board of directors for the Rhode Island Builders Association.