Joymala Hajra (Joya) - Communications Manager

Joya’s experience lies at the intersection of fashion, community, and sustainability. Alongside her 20+ year career as an Artist and Designer for mass apparel, she has researched and refined sustainable fashion practices and gendered development methods in close partnership with artisans in New York and Bangladesh.  At Custom Collaborative, Joya leverages her expertise to amplify creative voices and foster community resilience. She holds a BFA in Fashion Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology, an MA in South Asian Studies from Columbia University, and a certificate in Design for Social Impact from FIT. Joya has been recognized as a Columbia University Foreign Language and Area Studies and Center for the Study of Social Difference fellow, as well as an Archival Creators Fellow with the South Asian American Digital Archive. She is a member of the United Nations Sustainable Fashion and Lifestyle Network.