Emory University recruited Joanne Brzinski as an expert in European political parties and elections more than 30 years ago — before the European Union was formed.
In the decades years since, as her title expanded to administrator, director and even Emory parent, Brzinski forever changed Emory’s undergraduate student experience. When she steps down as the Emory College senior associate dean for undergraduate education in May, she will have shaped thousands of lives with a legacy that includes Emory’s iconic multi-disciplinary undergraduate research programs, a robust national scholarship program, first-year seminars that introduce new students to liberal arts learning and countless other efforts that elevate the undergraduate experience.
“Joanne has been an absolutely tireless and passionate supporter for creating an Emory experience that helps our students to think in new ways that open their minds and their worlds,” says Robyn Fivush, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor Emerita of Psychology, who served as Brzinski’s co-chair overseeing revisions to the general education requirements (GERs) implemented in 2023.
“She is a remarkable mentor to students, supportive of faculty and fully understands the liberal arts and sciences,” Fivush adds. “I couldn’t even think of constructive criticism. She is A-plus.”
Growing Emory programs through passion and dedication
Brzinski’s oversized, quiet role in Emory’s advancement on the national stage began when she arrived, eager to teach the talented undergraduates who were helping build the College’s reputation. She quickly began working individually with some students, helping them find their next steps after graduation. That commitment led her to administration in 1999.
She worked solo as the founding adviser of the National Scholarships and Fellowships Program — now a five-member office in Emory College’s Pathways Center — while also advising first-year students.
One of her first advisees was Danielle Sered, Emory’s 16th Rhodes Scholar, who had been able to travel to Ireland to interview Irish women poets for her honors thesis.
At the time, undergraduate research was more common in the natural sciences, thanks to the efforts of Biology Professor of Practice Emerita Patricia Marsteller. Watching Sered flourish, Brzinski committed to expanding student research and mentoring programs to the social sciences, arts and humanities.
In doing so, she designed and served as founding director of the Scholarly Inquiry and Research Experience (SIRE) program for first-time researchers and, working with Marsteller, grew the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program. Both are cornerstones of Emory’s hands-on research offerings.
“Danielle’s experience demonstrated to me how transformative it can be for our students to research the topics that inspire them,” Brzinski says. “The support we can provide for undergraduate research really makes a difference in their lives.”
It did for Sered. After earning master’s degrees from the University of Oxford and New York University, she began her career in restorative justice. She is the founder and executive director of Common Justice, a nonprofit that offers alternatives to incarceration for people charged with violent felonies.
“I remember Dean Brzinski’s total generosity of spirit,” Sered says. “She poured into me, and so many others, and made us feel we were deserving of that investment.”
Brzinski deflects that sort of admiration, always sure to note that she did not achieve those accomplishments alone. She has assembled an adroit leadership team in the Office for Undergraduate Education (OUE) that directs student services, connects with 650 faculty members and coordinates curriculum initiatives.
One of her more visible changes is the development of professional advisers who provide pre-major and major support to 5,700 undergraduate students. The less visible programs Brzinski built include a records team — managing accurate data on student enrollment, schedules and graduation requirements — and her work in online learning and design, which was instrumental when the pandemic shut down campus in spring 2020.
“It is rare to find a person who can both envision what the future needs and also has the practical experience to make it happen,” says Jason Ciejka, the associate dean for academic programs and faculty partnerships who has worked for Brzinski nearly his entire career. “Joanne is both that architect and builder.”
For instance, while building the frameworks and staffing for enterprises her office oversees, Brzinski worked closely with faculty to seek, develop and apply updated Emory College GERs.
A central component of the latest updates is the experiential learning requirement. Emory’s efforts included Brzinski hosting careful listening sessions with professors who had created their own programs, says Michael Rich, professor and chair of the Department of Political Science who started the Community Building and Social Change program.
“Joanne and her team were able to craft an experiential learning requirement that amplifies our scattered programs into an opportunity for all students,” Rich says. “Her legacy is one of innovation through engaged listening.”
Connecting academic experiences and real-life problems
Brzinski was not just listening to professors for the changes; she met with students and staff. She also drew on her own experiences as an adviser and parent.
Her son Ted graduated in 2005 and is now a professor of physics at Haverford College. He launched his career in soft matter research as an undergraduate researcher for Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Physics Eric Weeks, now the associate vice provost for faculty affairs.
Her other son, Josh, graduated with a degree in international studies and German in 2014. He now works in software development after finding a mentor in Emory alumnus Steve Ebrahimi.
“The most valuable way to retain students is to create those connections between academic experiences and real-life problems, and experiential learning creates those links,” Brzinski says. “My one hope is that more students have experiential learning so they can see themselves in the real world that needs what they have to offer.”
Brzinski’s dedication to the student experience will continue in the coming year when she becomes a senior adviser to Emory College Dean Barbara Krauthamer. She will work on curriculum and other projects for the dean, who cited Brzinski’s tenure of “innovative programs and deep commitment to mentoring” in naming her to the new role.
“Joanne Brzinski’s transformative leadership has inspired a culture of curiosity, purpose and academic excellence that will continue to shape student and faculty experiences,” Krauthamer says. “I’m grateful she will continue to lend her insight and vision as a senior advisor in the year ahead.”
Brzinski also will continue to serve as director of the Robert T. Jones Scholarship program for its 50th anniversary next year.
At its core, the “Bobby Jones Scholars” program is an exchange of exemplary students between Emory and the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Through the years it has expanded to include a successful study abroad program and faculty research partnerships. There have been more than 400 Bobby Jones Scholars since its inception, many of whom are expected to celebrate a 50th anniversary reunion in 2027 in Atlanta.
Steve Savage, whom Brzinski hired at OUE after his Bobby Jones Scholar year concluded, will be among them.
“I thought I’d be a math teacher,” says Savage, who earned a master’s in business administration at Emory’s Goizueta Business School with Brzinski’s support and is an assistant professor in the practice of organization and management at Goizueta. “It speaks to Joanne’s commitment to Emory that she uses her ability to see and bring out the best in people in her mentorship and by engaging with students. Her core reason for her work is to understand people’s wants and dreams and help make it happen.”
That devotion proved invaluable in 2020 when, as she was flying back from meeting the latest St Andrews cohort of Bobby Jones Scholars, Emory announced it was shutting down and pivoting to remote learning.
In less than two weeks, she helped guide an emergency transition to provide online classes to students scattered around the globe. She leveraged the trust she had spent decades building with faculty to get buy-in for the tools and resources needed.
Brzinski also laid out plans to meet the needs of students, which ranged from technological to housing to mental health support for the personal and professional anxieties that bloomed amid the instability.
Former Emory College Dean Michael A. Elliott, now president at Amherst College, oversaw the transition and how Brzinski re-envisioned Emory’s educational mission with limited information and no existing blueprint. He became the public face for the plans as Brzinski and her team worked behind the scenes in what would become a model for other universities navigating the crisis.
“She always puts the needs of the students and the institution first. Always,” Elliott says. “Joanne Brzinski is somebody whose contributions to the quality of the undergraduate experience are not always visible. Her impact has been more profound than I think most people know.”