Francesca Sterlacci

Francesca Sterlacci, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the University of Fashion, is a well-known and respected member of the fashion community. As owner of her eponymous clothing company for ten years, Francesca appeared at numerous nationwide trunk shows with her collection, which sold in such prestigious stores as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom and Henri Bendel. Her work has been featured on television as well as in and on the covers of magazines including Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, and in periodicals such as Women's Wear Daily, The New York Times, the Daily News and other newspapers across the country. Francesca has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, The New York Times and Women's Wear Daily on fashion trends, fashion education and the fashion industry.

Other professional recognition includes: first place winner of the North American Outerwear Contest, nominated for the More Fashion Design Award and Fashion Group International's "Rising Star Award."

Francesca's publishing accomplishments include: Leather Apparel Design, the Historical Dictionary of the Fashion Industry, The A-Z of the Fashion Industry, Leather Fashion Design, and a three volume beginner book series on Draping, Pattern Making and Sewing, which also serves as a supplement the University of Fashion video library. She has also made contributions to the Encyclopedia of Clothing & Fashion and You Can Do It: The Merit Badge Handbook for Grown-up Girls.

As a former tenured professor and chairperson of the Fashion Design Department at the prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) for 14 years, Francesca taught fashion design courses including draping, pattern making, technical garment construction, fabric studies, line planning, intro to fashion design, sportswear, outerwear, performance apparel and leather apparel design. During her tenure at FIT she created three fashion certificate programs: Leather Apparel Design, Outerwear & Performance Apparel and Haute Couture Design and was responsible for spearheading major curriculum changes to FIT's AAS and BFA Degree fashion programs. As a research professor at FIT, Francesca was selected as project coordinator for the redesign of the U.S. Army Extreme Cold Weather Clothing System.

An early pioneer of online fashion education, Francesca has taught graduate level fashion design at the Academy of Art University San Francisco, for six years. She believes that the future of education will be web-based.

Francesca's international teaching accomplishments include assignments at the Zhejiang Institute, Hangzhou, China and the Philippine Trade & Technology Council, Manila. In addition, she was chosen by FIT to conduct fashion design seminars for industry professionals and students from Belgium, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.