Susan Shaw graduated from the School of Art in 1972, with a BFA. Since graduating Cooper, she has spent her career as a graphic designer with an affinity for all things typographic. In the mid-1980s she established a small independent design firm specializing in corporate design and communications, working mostly with not-for-profits.

In 2007, Susan began teaching design and typography as an adjunct professor, at Queens College.

Susan has worked actively on behalf of the Cooper Union and the CUAA since 2010. Initially joining the Annual Fund Committee, she was elected to the Alumni Council in 2012, and re-elected for a second term beginning in 2016. She has served as a member of the Communications Committee, and the Nominating Committee, including being elected as the Chair of the Nominating Committee in 2018. In her role on the Communications Committee she works her design skills to create graphics and communications to engage with alumni and promote the CUAA. She has also contributed by being a class representative, maintaining ties to her classmates.

Susan met her husband Jack Freeman, Arch ‘69 when they overlapped at Cooper. They raised their two children in Sunnyside, Queens where they still live. Susan’s father, Arnold Shaw, was a 1946 graduate of Cooper and was part of New York City’s mid-century design community, which included many fellow Cooper graduates.

Susan is the 2021 Recipient of the CUAA Alumna of the Year Award.