Elena Romero: Assistant Chair and Assistant Professor, Marketing Communications at FIT

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Elena Romero: Assistant Chair and Assistant Professor, Marketing Communications at FIT

Elena Romero is Assistant Chair and Assistant Professor in the Marketing Communications department of the Jay and Patty Baker School of Business and Technology at the Fashion Institute of Technology (SUNY). Romero is also an award-winning TV Correspondent and Producer for LATiNAS on CUNY TV. A journalist for 30 years, Romero currently tells the stories of nuestra mujeres on a wide range of topics including health & wellness, parenting, entertainment, fashion, food and Hollywood.

A hip hop scholar and author, Romero was the co-curator of Fresh Fly Fabulous: 50 Years of Hip Hop Style at the Museum at FIT, a comprehensive fashion exhibition that explored the roots and evolution of hip hop style. The exhibit, which ran Feb. 8-Apr. 23, 2023, also had an accompanying book by the same title co-edited by Romero (Rizzoli) and released February 7, 2023. Romero first book on hip hop style is entitled Free Stylin: How Hip Hop Changed the Fashion Industry (Praeger, 2012).

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Romero began her professional journalism career in 1993 in radio at stations WNYC-AM and WBAI-FM in New York. She transitioned into the trade newspaper business in 1996 becoming a fashion journalist for the now defunct DNR and later, sister publication, WWD. During the span of her career that now encompasses newspapers, magazines, television, radio and book publishing, she has developed an expertise in hip hop music, style and Latinx culture. Her work has appeared in Honey, Savoy, Vibe, Latina, Urban Latino, Sportswear International, USA Today and the New York Post. Her hip hop fashion expertise is highlighted in the CNN documentary Fresh Dressed and current Netflix documentary The Remix: Hip Hop x Fashion. She has also appeared as a fashion expert on CNBC’s The Brave Ones featuring the story of Daymond John of FUBU and CNBC’s Suddenly Obsessed about skate brand Vans and its relationship with hip hop as well as In Vogue: The 1990s, a podcast about the decade that changed us.
 
Romero transitioned to college teaching in 2002 and has pursued academia full-time since 2019. A firm believer of public education, Romero has served as co-vice president and secretary on the Community Education Council (CEC) District 15 and as a Brooklyn Borough President Community Education Council District 15 Appointee in education under the leadership of Eric Adam (today New York’s Mayor). As a CEC member (2013-2019), she was a parent representative for schools in neighborhoods spanning from Boerum Hill to Sunset Park. Among her research interests include diversity, inclusion and equity in public schools, Latino parent engagement, middle schools and school choice in New York City.
 
Romero has received numerous awards including 2023 100 Hispanic Women Doctoral Scholarship; a 2023 Telly Silver Award for season 3 of LATiNAS; 2022 Telly Bronze Award for season two of LATiNAS; a 2021 Telly Silver Award for TV General/Cultural Reporting; the 2020 Comité Noviembre Josefina Aguado Scholarship for Single Parents; and the 2017-2018 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Adjunct Teaching.
 
She holds a BA in Journalism and Mass Communication and an MS in Publishing, both from New York University. Romero is currently a PhD student in Urban Education at The CUNY Graduate Center. A native New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent, Romero currently resides in Brooklyn with her three daughters.