Elisa Charters Appointed To NJIT Board Of Trustees

NEWARK, NJ —The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) announced Wednesday that Elisa Charters has been appointed to the school's Board of Trustees by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. Charters will begin her term on the 15-member board this month, the school said.

Charters is an NJIT alumna who earned a Bachelor in Environmental Science in science, technology and society in 1992 and a Master in Environmental Science in chemical engineering the following year.

According to a release, Charters currently is a principal in the consultancy EAC Business International and president of Latina Surge, a national nonprofit advocacy organization that she co-founded in 2015.

In addition to attending NJIT, Charters has been heavily involved with the university over the years. She has served on the Board of Advisors of NJIT's Martin Tuchman School of Management since 2014. Earlier this year, Charters became a charter member of the school's Hispanic and Latinx Leadership Council (HLLC), which partners with corporate leaders and community and professional organizations to help enroll more Hispanic and Latinx students at the school.

"I cannot express how extremely proud I am in this moment — as a daughter and first to attend college, as a mother of a daughter and son, as a wife of an NJIT alumnus and most especially as a Latina advocate and professional representing other multicultural women who led before me and those who will follow," Charters said.

According to NJIT, Charters is the third Latina to serve on the board, and she is expected to help the university as it seeks to achieve diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB).

"The trustees and I look forward to the significant contribution that Elisa will make," NJIT President Joel S. Bloom said. "She embodies the best of NJIT: smart, driven, passionate and a champion of diversity, equity and inclusion. And Elisa's dedication to her alma mater is exceptional."

Beyond her NJIT degrees, Charters holds a Master of International Affairs from Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, a graduate certificate in commercial real estate, development and finance from N.Y.U., a professional certificate in diversity and inclusion from Cornell's ILR School and an ABA paralegal accreditation from Fairleigh Dickinson.

Charters has served on the Essex County Planning Board, Columbia University's Task Force on Belonging and the Latino Alumni Association of Columbia, where she is the president. Charters also is a global network leader within the Lean In organization and a delegate of the Latino Action Network.

Previously, Charters was appointed to the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Health Care Facilities Financing Authority by Gov. Chris Christie and to the New Jersey Minority and Business Advisory Board by Gov. Jon Corzine.

Earlier in her career, Charters spent 14 years at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where she served as lead negotiator for site acquisitions and operations in the redevelopment of the World Trade Center and assistant comptroller for Port Commerce financial services.