Nicole Rosario-Ortiz ’23: Bringing Textile Expertise to Government Clients

From interning with Hanesbrands to joining a new team at Booz Allen Hamilton, Nicole Rosario-Ortiz has found herself surrounded by Wilson College of Textiles alumni. 

“Wherever I go, I meet someone who went to the Wilson College of Textiles. I already knew that I went to the right school, but having this community just continually validates that decision.”  

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Rosario-Ortiz attended the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, where she studied chemical engineering as an undergraduate. However, halfway through her degree, she developed an interest in sustainable fashion. 

“At one point I asked myself, ‘I like chemical engineering, and I really like this fashion thing – how could I merge the two?’” she says. “I was looking at graduate programs, and I stumbled upon the Wilson College of Textiles and the textile engineering program, and that’s when I decided: I’m going to make it my goal to get into this master’s program.”

Entering the world of textiles 

Her hard work paid off – after graduating with her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, Rosario-Ortiz enrolled at the Wilson College to pursue a master’s degree in textile engineering. 

In her first few semesters at the Wilson College, she took classes that blended her existing scientific knowledge with new information unique to textiles. She learned about everything from sports performance textiles (such as uniforms and the knit components of sneakers) to technical textiles (such as parachutes and car airbags). 

“The classes really made me understand how ‘textiles’ is more of an umbrella term, and that there’s a million branches that come out of it. It was also incredible to see how transferable it is to a lot of different engineering fields.”

After building a strong foundation in textiles, Rosario-Ortiz showed off her skills at Nike as an NXT apparel innovation graduate intern. In her role, she collected data from marathoners who were training to qualify for the Olympics and analyzed data for Nike’s new sports bra sizing chart.

“That project was not only satisfying from a technical perspective, but also from an empowerment perspective. It’s crazy how it was 2023 and we were finally trying to create sports bras for our size as women and how different our bodies react to high-impact sports.”

Bringing textile expertise to clients 

Upon graduating from the Wilson College, Rosario-Ortiz landed a job as a senior consultant textile engineer at Booz Allen Hamilton. Although she had to leave Raleigh behind, she quickly found that she wasn’t far from home – three of her four team members at Booz Allen Hamilton are Wilson College alumni. 

In her current role, Rosario-Ortiz helps bring cutting-edge textile technology to government clients. With a strong understanding of the industry, fostered through her time spent at the Wilson College and her past internships, she helps clients make decisions that enhance the operational readiness of the nation’s frontlines. 

The work begins with a government client expressing a need for a product or product capability. Then, Rosario-Ortiz and her team step in, prototyping, testing and fielding a textile technology solution. This step can encompass anything from doing market research to ordering material testing so Rosario-Ortiz and her team can better understand how the products do – or don’t – support the client’s needs. 

“We are the people that do all the behind-the-scenes work to make a product happen,” she says.

Once Rosario-Ortiz and her team have provided their expertise on the subject, they deliver their findings to the client. In a lot of ways, the process is similar to the projects and presentations Rosario-Ortiz completed while earning her degree at the Wilson College.

“I definitely honed these skills during grad school, not only with presentations, but also with being able to see something and quickly summarize it or give a report.”

Staying connected  

Now living in the U.S. capital, Rosario-Ortiz is a long way from the institutions that shaped her academic career. Despite the distance, her support for both alma maters – and the students attending them – is unwavering.

One way she stays connected to the Wilson College is through the Blend Mentorship Program, where she helps current students navigate a future career in the textile industry. 

“Supporting these students is a very important thing to me, and it’s one of the core pillars I like to live by,” she says. “I’m a product of all my mentors, so how can I give back to the upcoming graduates, whether it be from NC State or from the University of Puerto Rico?”