Speakers

Brandice Daniel will speak on Tuesday, May 19, at the 10 am and 1:15 pm ceremonies. Daniel is the founder and CEO of Harlem’s Fashion Row (HFR), an agency she launched in 2007 to create opportunities for designers of color within the global fashion industry. Raised in Memphis, Tennessee, she built HFR to provide access, visibility, and connections long denied to multicultural talent. Under her leadership, HFR has partnered with major brands including Nike, LVMH, Tommy Hilfiger, and Gap; notably, the Nike LeBron James x HFR collaboration sold out in under five minutes.

In 2020, Daniel founded ICON360, a nonprofit that has contributed over $1 million to HBCU fashion programs and Black designers. That same year, HFR received a major donation from the CFDA and Vogue, and Daniel was recognized in Vogue. A respected speaker, she has led programs for companies like TikTok and H&M and has been featured in leading publications.

She holds a Fashion Merchansiding degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and an International Trade and Marketing degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology and has received numerous honors for her impact and leadership.

Chris Mazzilli will speak on Tuesday, May 19, at the 4 pm ceremony. Mazzilli is a New York–born entrepreneur, producer, and classic car expert whose career spans entertainment, hospitality, and automotive restoration. A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Menswear program, he has built a diverse résumé that includes stand-up comedy, television production, and business ownership. His credits include Gotham Comedy Live, The Lost Corvettes, and Downey’s Dream Cars, the latter earning an Emmy Award.

A leading authority on Chevrolet Corvettes and muscle cars, Mazzilli owns a renowned collection and operates top-tier restoration businesses. He is also the owner of Gotham Comedy Club, a celebrated venue that has hosted icons like Jerry Seinfeld and Robin Williams.

Beyond business, he co-created major sweepstakes initiatives benefiting veterans and environmental causes, blending his passion for cars with philanthropy and innovation.

Abigail DeVille will speak on Wednesday, May 20, at the 10 am ceremony. DeVille is an American artist known for immersive installations that transform found materials into powerful explorations of history, race, and memory. Born in New York City, she draws on the layered narratives of urban spaces to examine overlooked stories, particularly those connected to the African American experience. DeVille often incorporates discarded objects—wood, metal, glass, and everyday debris—reassembling them into environments that evoke both fragility and resilience.

Her work has been exhibited widely, including at institutions such as the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Whitney Museum of American Art, as well as in major public art projects across the United States. Through these installations, she invites viewers to confront the social and historical forces embedded in the built environment.

DeVille earned her MFA from Yale University and her BFA from FIT, and she has received numerous honors for her contributions to contemporary art. Her practice continues to challenge perceptions of space, value, and collective memory.

Jeriana San Juan will speak on Wednesday, May 20, at the 1:15 pm ceremony. San Juan is an Emmy- and Costume Designers Guild–nominated costume designer known for her distinctive, story-driven work across film and television. Her recent projects include M3GAN 2.0 and On Swift Horses, a 1950s-set romantic drama. She earned an Emmy nomination for Halston, where her designs brought three decades of the designer’s world to life and transformed Ewan McGregor into the iconic figure.

San Juan’s work on The Get Down earned her the 2017 ACE Award for Style Influencer of the Year for its cultural impact. Additional credits include The Mother, The Plot Against America, and The Sinner. She began her career with eight seasons at Saturday Night Live and has designed for theater and global tours.

A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology Fashion Design BFA program, she lives in New York with her family.

Malene Djenaba Barnett will speak on Wednesday, May 20, at the 4:30 pm ceremony. Barnett is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, textile surface designer, and community builder whose work explores Caribbean heritage and Black diasporic aesthetics. She holds an MFA in Ceramics from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture and two degrees from the Fashion Institute of Technology in Textile/Surface Design and Illustration. In 2022, she received a Fulbright Award to research African Jamaican ceramic traditions at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts.

Barnett’s practice spans ceramics, installations, woven portraits, and collage, with exhibitions at institutions including the Museum of the African Diaspora and the National Gallery of Jamaica. Her work has been featured in major publications such as The New York Times and Architectural Digest.

She is the founder of the Black Artists + Designers Guild and author of Crafted Kinship. Based in Brooklyn, she continues to research and advocate for global Black creative communities.

On Monday, May 18, at 6 pm, Robert Geronimo will speak to the master's graduates of the School of Graduate Studies. Geronimo graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology's Illustration MFA program in 2017. He is currently an art history and comic art professor at Brooklyn College, where he teaches courses on ancient, medieval, and Renaissance art, as well as visual storytelling. He went on to become a published comic creator and public-facing art history educator whose work makes complex visual traditions accessible to wider audiences. 

His teaching and creative work center on sacred tradition, myth, and visual culture, with a particular focus on how historical images continue to shape contemporary imagination. He defines himself as a mythmaker of monsters, cathedrals, and divine mystery.