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Purchase College, SUNY will hold its 54th annual commencement ceremony on Friday, May 15, 2026 at 12:30 p.m. at the Westchester County Center in White Plains.  Degrees will be conferred upon more than 700 graduating scholars representing dozens of majors and several countries.

This year, world-acclaimed choreographer Kyle Abraham ’00, who just won a Guggenheim Fellowship for choreography this week, will receive an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree and Dr. Audrey Tyrka ’99 and Maxwell Pearce ‘18 will receive the President’s Award for Distinguished Alumni.

Tachynel Merveille, an acting major from Staten Island, will offer remarks on behalf of the senior class. Jeanette Gonzalez, a vocal performance major from New Rochelle,  will perform the National Anthem. Top Shelf Party Band, which is comprised of Purchase alumni from 2003 to 2009, will perform throughout the ceremony.

President Michael E. Steiper said, “I look forward to celebrating the wonderful achievements of both our graduating class and the impressive accomplishments of our honorary degree and distinguished alumni awardees.  The ceremony will honor three decades of Purchase alumni from vastly different academic and professional fields. Taken together, they are a testament to the incredible value of a Purchase education and to the lifelong benefits of being part of a creative, supportive, and intellectually curious community.”

 Kyle Abraham is the Founder and Artistic Director of A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, a company widely celebrated as “one of the most consistently excellent troupes working today” by The New York Times. A Pittsburgh native, Abraham trained at the Creative and Performing Arts High School before earning a BFA from SUNY Purchase and an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, later receiving an honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from Washington Jefferson College. A Guggenheim Fellow (2026), MacArthur Fellow (2013), and Doris Duke Award recipient (2016), he has been recognized with a Princess Grace Statue Award, multiple National Dance Critics’ Awards, and an Olivier Award nomination for Best New Dance Production. His choreography has been commissioned by some of the world’s most prestigious companies, including American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York City Ballet, and the Royal Ballet.

Beyond his artistic achievements, Abraham has been a dedicated educator and cultural leader, serving as the Claude and Alfred Mann Endowed Professor in Dance at USC’s Glorya Kaufman School of Dance and as a visiting professor at UCLA. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has served on advisory boards for Dance Magazine — for which he served as the first-ever Guest Editor — and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Named a Kennedy Center Next 50 Leader and honored by Dance Magazine as a “voice of a generation,” Abraham continues to push the boundaries of contemporary dance through works that celebrate Black and queer stories and the full richness of human experience.

Audrey Tyrka, MD. PhD., graduated summa cum laude from Purchase College in 1988 with a degree in Psychology. During her time at Purchase, Audrey also explored the visual arts through studio classes, supporting a lifelong interest in creative practice. She went on to earn her M.D. and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999. Following her residency training at Brown University, Dr. Tyrka joined the faculty in 2003. Over the past two decades, she has held various clinical, research, and leadership roles, and in 2024 was named the Mary E. Zucker Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Internationally known for her groundbreaking work on the biological impact of childhood adversity and trauma, Dr. Tyrka is the founding Co-Director of the Miriam Hospital COBRE Center on Stress, Trauma, and Resilience. She also serves in local and national roles to advance equitable policies and inclusive communities in science and healthcare. Alongside her professional career, Audrey has maintained an active art studio since 2014. As a painter and photographer, she contributes the proceeds from her work to Sojourner House, a Rhode Island-based agency providing advocacy and services for victims of sexual and domestic violence.

Maxwell Pearce is an award-winning mixed media artist and a Harlem Globetrotter from Tuckahoe, New York, who challenges how we perceive humanity in and out of sports. He was a starting point guard at Purchase College, where he quickly built a global reputation for his slam dunk videos. His social presence led to being featured in CNN, GQ, CBS, Sportscenter, MTV, and more. In 2018, he won the first ever Shark Tank business competition at Purchase College with his idea for a nonprofit called Flynance, a program that he founded with a teammate from Purchase. This program aims to help student athletes with the transition from sports into their next phase of life. This program was named a 2018 Westchester Up & Coming Award recipient, and was featured in Westchester Magazine. That same year, he represented Purchase College in the ESPN College Slam Dunk Championship in San Antonio and came in 3rd place. Pearce became just the 7th Division III player to participate in the championship. His outstanding performance led to being discovered by the Harlem Globetrotters and signing a contract upon graduating with a bachelor’s degree in economics. In 2020, he was an ESPYS ‘Can’t Stop Watching Moment of the Year’ award honorable mention nominee.

As an artist, Pearce notably creates his artwork out of shoelaces and sports equipment to remind us of the total human under the jersey – with family stories, passions, and histories. He has worked with HBCUs, NFL, NBA, Reebok, Players Tribune, and more. Maxwell’s work has been commissioned for Patti Labelle, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, Diana Tarausi, Clipse, and many more. His art has been covered by the following publications: NBC, Forbes, Black Enterprise, Revolt TV, CBS Mornings, NCAA, and more. Recently, Maxwell wrote an op-ed for the Miami Herald, collaborated with NBA to mentor HBCU students at NBA Allstar weekend, was the Keynote speaker at Howard University Art Basel exhibition, gave a TED Talk at TED headquarters in NYC about the intersection of sports and art, and will be a part of the new Capital One Arena Art Collection this fall.

 For more information about the college, visit www.purchase.edu.