Justine Clohessy graduated from The Art Institute of Philadelphia with her Fashion Marketing degree in 2004. Throughout her time in school, Justine was not afraid of hard work, a trait that would pay off for her in her career. Justine worked full time in the evenings to put herself through school. Her dedication to her design program hard work paid off as well. Academically Justine received a 4.0 for 3 quarters and received best of quarter for 2, along with earning Valedictorian of her graduating class of June 2004.

In addition to her work and studies, Justine landed an Internship with Nicole Miller. Shortly afterwards, Justine’s manager at the Philadelphia location was promoted and moved to NY. Because her manager was so impressed with her talent and enjoyed working with Justine so much that she offered an internship to Justine in NY. Extremely excited about the great opportunity, Justine commuted for 3 months to NY and even one extra month after graduation because of her dedication to her work, along with the valuable skills she was learning first hand “in the field” and it was a lot of fun for her!

As graduation drew near, Justine was offered a job by Nicole Miller as Assistant Brand Manager. Within one year Justine’s professionalism and creative thinking led her to a promotion to her current position of Fashion Public Relations Manager. What Justine loves the most about this job is that every day she is part of a new styling adventure. She likes to “get into the minds of who she is dressing and to be really involved with the work.” She finds it so rewarding to see Nicole Miller in an editorial in Vogue magazine and can say “I was a part of that.” Additionally, in her position as Fashion Public Relations Manager, she works directly with editors from all media including dailies to weeklies, monthlies, broadcasts to onlines. She has the opportunity to work with celebrity stylists for red carpet dressing, celebrity and charitable events.

She doesn’t stop there! Justine is also dedicated to giving back to The Art Institute of Philadelphia. Justine is responsible for hiring all interns for her department. She feels it is really important to help current students because “she had been in that position”. She understands how important it is to work in a design house and see what it is all about first hand. She organizes student field trips to the Nicole Miller NYC showroom and is a positive mentor for the interns. Justine knows the value of hands on learning in conjunction with classroom instruction. Justine feels “it is vital for students to get involved with actual projects because that involvement can lead to really amazing things; they then know it first hand.” She likes to give interns a lot of responsibility so they can get the most out of the experience.

With everything going on in her life, Justine also likes to stay in touch with her creative side by making her own jewelry. She is currently taking a jewelry design class in the evenings. Justine feels with her busy schedule this is chance for her to get away and do something artistic for herself. She is enjoying the fast paced life style of New York, but never forgets where she came from and the hard work that got her to where she is today. Justine always has a desire to help her clients, The Art Institute of Philadelphia students and on a non-fashion front, she adopted a black lab puppy from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.