Faculty

Profile

Ngozi Okaro, Founder and Executive Director of Custom Collaborative, is an activist for economic, environmental, and social justice. She founded Custom Collaborative in 2016 to support immigrant and low-income women launching sustainable fashion businesses and careers, while simultaneously advocating for a fashion industry that honors planet and people. Ngozi builds bridges in and between organizations and individuals to create opportunity and access.  Her background includes leading initiatives at National Urban League and its affiliates, INSEAD, and Yale. 

Over the course of a career in social-sector leadership, Ngozi has led education, social justice, and community-based organizations to identify and meet their missions. She is expert at strategic planning and operations, leadership development, and innovation. She has special expertise in mapping and managing change for growth-stage enterprises. 

Ngozi founded Custom Collaborative to serve two constituencies: fashion-industry workers seeking fair compensation and thoughtful consumers who want quality clothes that fit the body well and support the environment. Custom Collaborative has evolved to work alongside designers who need skilled employees and will pay living wages, providing a valuable industry service. Custom Collaborative also develops worker-owned cooperatives in support of equitable ownership and strong local economies. 

Ngozi is known for her incisive reasoning and executable strategies -- gained through 15+ years of transformational strategy and management successes. She is a natural team-builder who advances organizations through revenue generation & cost containment, human capital development, and stakeholder engagement.

Degrees Held

JD, BA

Professional Affiliation

Commissioner of the NYC Equal Employment Practices Commission

Director of the NYC Economic Development Corporation

Research Interests

Sustainability, Alternative Economic Models, Gender Equity, Racial Justice

Awards And Honors

2023 Institute Of Digital Fashion 100 Innovators; 2022 Goldman Sachs Black Woman Impact Leader, Vogue Business 100 Innovator, and Conscious Fashion Campaign & United Nations SDG Honoree; 2021 AARP Purpose Prize Fellow, and Crain's New York Notable Woman in Business; 2020 “World-Changing Women in Conscious Business” winner, from Conscious Company Media and Kate Spade; 2019 NYC Fair Trade Coalition "Changemaker of the Year", and New York Women's Foundation "Spirit of Entrepreneurship” awardee.