Project Team
Amy Sperber
Assistant professor, Fashion Design
Amy Sperber is a multidisciplinary fashion designer focused on innovative technical approaches and design thinking, aimed at creating sustainable systems and creative solutions in clothing. She holds her BFA and MFA in Fashion Design from FIT and teaches in the undergraduate Fashion Design program.
C.J. Yeh
Professor, Communication Design Pathways
C.J. Yeh is a creative director, artist, educator, and author. Yeh has published seven books, several of which have been adopted by universities in Taiwan as textbooks. Yeh has won multiple teaching awards including the FIT President’s Award for Faculty Excellence, the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Adobe Educators’ Choice Awards. Yeh is the founder of Cynda Media Lab, an award-winning interdisciplinary design studio, working with international clients and major brands like Disney, the Taipei Museum of Contemporary Art, and GUND.
Christie Shin
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, COMMUNICATION DESIGN FOUNDATION
Christie Shin has more than 25 years of professional experience as an educator, creative consultant, and design director specializing in branding, typography, UX/UI design, and digital product design. Currently, Shin is an associate professor as well as the coordinator of the Creative Technology and Design subject area at FIT, where she was awarded the 2017 FIT Faculty Excellence Award. Before joining FIT, she taught digital design and new media courses at the Graduate School of Art and Design at Pratt Institute and at Hofstra University. Shin earned her BFA, MS, and MFA from Pratt.
Michael Ferraro
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE FIT/INFOR DTECH LAB
Michael Ferraro is the Executive Director of the FIT/Infor DTech Lab. DTech is a public/private partnership whose mission is to engage faculty and students to solve industry problems using design and technology. The strategic goals of DTech’s experiential learning are accomplished through projects that empower entrepreneurs and engage industry. Creative technologist, researcher, artist, and educator, Ferraro’s career spans the worlds of software development, virtual reality media production, fine art, commercial entertainment, and higher education. He came to FIT from Lehman College/CUNY where he spent 12 years as an associate professor in the digital media program of the art department. Ferraro earned his MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and his BFA from Syracuse University.
Judith Bowens
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF THE FIT/INFOR DESIGN AND TECH LAB (DTECH)
Judith Bowens is assistant director of the FIT/Infor Design and Tech Lab (DTech), where she manages DTech business operations and project initiatives. Bowens began her retail career at Barneys New York, where she held positions of increasing responsibility in stores and the corporate office and was named vice president, stores in 1997. With extensive experience optimizing the retail space, Judith innovated systems and processes, talent development, client experience, revenue growth, P&L, multi-unit expansion, and change management. She holds a bachelor of arts in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.
FIT Design Students
Brianna Rodriguez, Visual Presentation and Exhibition Design Alumni, 2021
Kenneth Espinosa, BFA Fashion Design Alumni, 2021
Julian Catasus y Brueggemann, Advertising and Digital Design Alumni, 2020
Cotton Incorporated
Mark Messura
Senior vice president, Global Supply Chain Marketing for Cotton Incorporated