Assistant Professor, School of Culinary Arts, The Culinary Institute of America; Hyde Park, NY

Roshara Sanders ’14 is assistant professor in the School of Culinary Arts at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA). She is the first black female chef instructor at the CIA and leads the college’s new African Cuisines concentration. Before joining the CIA, she worked in the prestigious 1 Michelin-starred restaurant Oceana in Midtown Manhattan. She is a veteran who served two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan as a member of the 4th Engineer Battalion. Her fire and passion are unmatched, and the accolades she’s received over her ten plus years in the industry are well deserved. Most recently she was named a 2024 "Game Changer" by Food & Wine magazine and she has also recently been awarded the Connecticut Restaurant Association “Best New Restaurant” for her work in partnership with 29 Markle Court in Bridgeport, Connecticu. An alum of the James Beard Foundation’s Chef Bootcamp for Policy and Change, she presented a feature dinner at the prestigious James Beard House in New York City in November of 2018 in honor of Veterans Day. That same year, Forbes designated her a Forbes Fellow at the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit in Boston. In 2015 she won a special Veteran’s Day episode of Food Network’s hit show Chopped that included military vets competing from every branch Army, Marines, Air Force, and Navy. Chef Sanders currently serves as a celebrity ambassador for Habitat for Humanity International and most recently traveled to Malawi on behalf of the organization. @chefro137