On the heels of Vanessa K. Bush?s appointment this week as editor-in-chief of Essence Magazine, Melissa Kramer, former creative director at Uptown magazine, was named fashion director at Essence.
Kramer replaces Ellianna Placas, a white woman who came under fire for being hired in a key editorial role at a Black women?s magazine. (Placas was hired by former editor-in-chief Angela Burt-Murray and let go in 2012, a year after the appointment of former editor-in-chief Constance C.R. White.)
Prior to joining Uptown, Kramer was a project manager at Independent Film Series and before that, she served as a publicity specialist at Global Communications. She has a bachelor of arts degree in sociology from Macalester College.
