Weaving a Legacy of Excellence One Alum at a Time

Jefferson’s legacy as a leader in textile technology education was born in 1884 with the addition of a school to the curriculum of the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art to provide training for those entering the textile trade. The Philadelphia Textile School, founded by Theodore C. Search, became the first textile school in the United States and is the foundation of the innovative, transdisciplinary university of today.

One hundred forty years later, Jefferson’s Engineering Program continues this illustrious tradition, preparing students for success in the rapidly changing global textile industry. The program’s Textile Engineering Concentration employs a curriculum designed to help students develop a vital understanding of the latest developments in the field, including traditional and nontraditional textile processes, through the increased use of electronics, automation, as well as novel materials. Through hands-on and classroom study, students learn about modern textile applications in areas including automotive, aerospace, geotextiles, and more.

“Textile engineering is taking fibers, yarns, fabrics, and finishes and making them into different products,” explains Brian George, associate professor and director of Jefferson’s Engineering Program. “It could be apparel, but most of the time textile engineers are working in high-performance materials.” Textile engineers may also perform research to develop new uses for these materials to improve current products and create new ones.

For Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science alumnus and owner of ICF Mercantile David Ronner ’77, a comprehensive education prepared him for a lifetime in the textile industry. “When I was at Textile, the industry was very robust,” he shares. “I’ve been in the business for the last 47 years. I knew that pairing a business degree with textile engineering courses would make me more marketable. I started my career with a yarn manufacturer and launched ICF Mercantile in 2008. We have two facilities in New Jersey, where we are manufacturing, warehousing, and engineering technical textiles.”

Hiring fellow alumni for his company was imperative — and inevitable. “I have a high degree of loyalty,” he says. “My wife, who is a 1979 Textile graduate, and myself have visited Jefferson (formerly Textile) for project development over the last number of years. It was natural for me to go and look at my alma mater first to see if we could find the type of people and the resources we needed. We were seeking textile technologists and textile engineers. Our products require knowledge and that kind of background.”

“We have 50 employees, of which six are from Textile, Philadelphia University, and Jefferson,” Ronner says. “We’re poised to hire at least one, possibly two, more people from Jefferson this year.”

Janet Moisey, a 1991 graduate of Textile’s MBA program, was the first alum hired in 2017. “I’m working with ICF’s customers,” she says. “I think meeting professors, and talking in terms of the business world with a textile slant, was helpful to me.”

Ronner continues, “After we started our Warren facility, we realized we required more engineering assistance, so we hired Carly Ragan as a process engineer.”

“I graduated from Jefferson in 2019 with a degree in general engineering with a concentration in textiles,” Ragan says. “It was great to see the Jacquard looms, the rapier looms, and the non-wovens equipment—everything that I would get to work on. My education taught me to look at the larger picture and to learn for myself how to approach technical challenges.”

As the company continued to expand, Ronner asked Ragan for a recommendation on a new hire. She recommended classmate Morgan Dunn, a 2020 textile engineering graduate who is also appreciative of the hands-on experience available at Jefferson. “Seeing the equipment on the floor is a lot different than just getting a picture in your textbook,” Dunn shares. “I knew that I wanted to be hands-on with machinery and involved in process engineering. That was my favorite aspect.”

Plant engineer Adnan Hashmi graduated from Textile with a master’s degree in textile engineering in 1997 and joined ICF just two years ago. “People will come in and say, ‘Can you do this? How can you do this?’” Hashmi says. “The 'How Factor' is what Jefferson brought to me. It was an incredible experience. I was exposed to every single aspect of textiles that you can imagine—knitting, nonwovens, dyeing and finishing, and weaving. You name it and they had it. Through the master’s program, I met people with different experiences coming from different parts of the world. I still have connections with them throughout the international community.”

ICF’s latest Jefferson addition, process engineer Simran Bains-Shepard, graduated in 2022 with an undergraduate degree in textile product science. “I chose Jefferson because of their small class sizes,” she shares. “I saw that you could connect with every one of your professors and had a relationship with almost all of them. I’m still in contact with a lot of them today.”

“I think my favorite piece of advice about going into the textile industry was that textile is an art that’s a science,” says Ragan. “But what we do goes so much more beyond the clothes that you’re wearing—the rug that you’re standing on—anything like that. There are so many important applications, and I don’t think people realize that products they use every day involve textiles.”

Ronner concurs. “This is an important opportunity for Jefferson. There is such a deficiency, and a severe need for people who are educated in textiles today. We won’t be able to sustain all of the industrial and strategic applications that are required today without the level of knowledge that Jefferson provides.”

No matter the name of the school or the year they attended, there is a common thread connecting these devoted alumni. As Bains-Shepard shares, “When I first joined ICF, I didn’t know anybody here, and I instantly had a connection with everyone. We all had very similar experiences that we could connect on, and that was really helpful.”

“Jefferson graduates are highly valued because they are all quality people,” says Ronner. “The camaraderie of all educated from the same school is just an extra bonus. They’ve all done a really good job here. We try to continue to promote them into higher level positions as the company grows. We’re going to continue that with Jefferson going forward.”