Professor Melanie Reim is an award-winning illustrator with a sketchbook never far from her side. Since earning her MFA in Illustration from Syracuse University, she has illustrated for book publishers, advertising agencies, museums, magazines and major corporations. She is the founder and former chairperson of the MFA in Illustration at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, where she is a Professor in the School of Art and Design and the School of Graduate Studies. Melanie teaches drawing and illustration on both graduate and undergraduate levels, both in the United States and abroad.
Melanie is the recipient of a SUNY Chancellors Award for Faculty Service, SUNY / FIT President’s Award for Student Centeredness and is a Fulbright Scholar. She is one of the co-founders of the FIT President’s Council on Diversity, has served on the Presidential Planning Council for Strategic Planning and the FIT Brand Consortium. Melanie has served as Education Chair for the Board of Directors at the Society of Illustrators in New York City as Education Chair, and ICON: The Illustration Conference, where she advocates for the rich and well-rounded education of illustration students everywhere as the future of the fashion industry.
Melanie sketched throughout the first day of the Fashion Forum, uniquely capturing moments from our vibrant speakers and attendees. An exhibition of Melanie’s work was hosted on the second day.
