Hi! 

I'm Brigitte.

I like stories.

 And the truth.

 I can be long-winded—but you wanted to know, so here we are:

I'm married to my soulmate, Jon, who, no matter how grand a dream I come up with, always supports me—and who I hope would say the same about me.

Together, we have three beautiful children, all currently in public school in Gwinnett County—kindergarten, 4th grade, and 6th grade.

I grew up not too far from here in Fulton County. I attended Chattahoochee High School and then became part of the first graduating class of Northview High School.

For local perspective: St. Ives Country Club was horse farm land when I was roaming around. Gas was 73¢ a gallon in high school, and I have vivid memories of filling up my Honda Civic and driving aimlessly through what was then stunning countryside.

Much has changed since then.

But the importance of education—in my personal story and in the story of generations to come—is as critical as ever.

When I think back on my own education, what I remember most are my teachers <3.

Mr. Starnes (3rd and 4th grade, I believe—a Winnie-the-Pooh fanatic); Ms. King in 5th grade, who later became Mrs. Colundgia (and I am almost certainly spelling that wrong!); Coach Casey, who taught World History, coached basketball, and had a bigger-than-life personality; Mr. Ryan*, my physics teacher, who was also a Georgia Tech researcher; Ms. Rosenwasser, my Spanish teacher; and, of course, Ms. Jackson—who made me teach the class one day because she thought it was "just punishment" for talking too much in class.

...and many more.

Those are just the names I can pull from memory more than 20 years later. Most of this happened before everything we did left a digital footprint, and I've since decluttered my way down to only a few old yearbooks. Maybe one day I'll dig them out and fill in some of the blanks.

In high school, I was treasurer of our school council and was voted "Most Likely to Succeed" alongside Caleb Click, who is now at Perimeter Church.

But I think my feelings about education started much earlier than any of that.

I am the daughter of two immigrants who came from very modest beginnings.

My father was the eldest of five children from the mountains of Lebanon—a tiny country far away, near Jerusalem and Gaza. His family had so little that there weren't enough shoes for each child to have a pair of their own.

They shared shoes.

Both of of my father's parents were illiterate.

He understood very early that education could be a way through social and economic barriers, and he took his education very, very seriously.

In 1976, as war was heating up in Lebanon, my dad left with $200 in his pocket—his family's life savings—and a scholarship to Georgia Tech.

While at Georgia Tech, he worked two jobs. Over time, he helped bring his mother, then his sister, and later his three brothers to the United States.

My mother was the youngest of three children and grew up in inner-city Paris. Her family of five lived in a roughly 600-square-foot apartment with a communal bathroom.

Things were tight there, too.

Her path into education was anything but conventional.

Despite never being formally trained as a teacher, she answered a job advertisement in a newspaper—one that was heavily applied for!—and somehow found herself teaching some of the most challenging students in inner-city Paris, including children with significant behavioral, emotional, and learning needs.

And she loved it.

My parents eventually met here, in America.

On a blind date! - through a connection at the Alliance Française in Atlanta.

Their stories were very different, but the lesson I inherited from both was the same:

Where you begin should not determine where you are able to go.

Education is one of the most powerful ways we make that possible.

My parents built a radically different life for the generation that came after them.

And I am that next generation.

I'm not far removed from their stories, and thankfully, I did my best to pay attention to them.

*Mr. Ryan was perhaps  my all time favorite high school teacher. Mainly because my older sister, who I learned a lot from, told me "whatever you do pray you don't get Mr. Ryan". Well I did, and he was the best! ( full-circle  lesson learned post-kids, what is good for one may not be for another...) After highschool I was surprised to see Mr. Ryan on campus at Georgia Tech where he had been doing research since I had known him on "how children most effectively learn..."

My dream was actually to go to the University of Georgia, where my soul-sister friend Amanda Northrop (may she rest in peace) was going.

I still remember the day I was accepted into Georgia Tech—and feeling anxious about "going to the big city" and leaving my best friend behind.

I studied abroad (International Affairs with Professor Bowman) in Argentina and Brazil. 

Some of my favorite classes were Sales, Organizational Behavior, and Business Law with Professor Cummings, a West Point graduate, whom I also worked for in the IT department of the College of Management. 

In 2008 I graduated with a BS in Business Management (concentrations if Finance and Psychology)

I went on to have a career in options and derivatives trading, and later in international sales expansion for high-tech early-stage software companies, where I met my now husband. 

After my father and Godmother passed away, I stepped away from work and we had our 3rd child. 

And eventually, I found myself on a very different unimagined path  :

As a full-time mother raising three children within our public school system, and having homeschooled for 1 year, I see education from an entirely different perspective.

I see incredible teachers pouring themselves into their students.

I see families who desperately want their children to succeed.

I see tremendous resources, talented people, and enormous potential.

But I also see, feel, and hear the frustrations.

I see parents struggling to understand what is happening inside their children's schools.

I see "communication" that too often flows in only one direction.

I see leaders focused on things that feel increasingly removed from what families and teachers need them focused on.

I see teachers carrying enormous responsibilities while their support continues to seem to decline.

I see systems that can become so large and complicated that families feel disconnected from decisions directly affecting their children.

And I see communities filled with capable, passionate people who want to help—but don't always know how to connect with one another or where to begin.

This isn't about attacking public education.

It's about believing in it enough to expect excellence from it.

We believe excellent schools require focus, strong academic standards, and clear expectations.

They require leaders who are focused, transparent, accessible, and accountable.

They require leaders who collaborate, listen, engage, and respond to the needs and voices of the communities they serve.

They require teachers who are respected, supported, and empowered to teach.

They require parents who are informed, connected, and meaningfully engaged.

And they require communities willing to collaborate, ask questions, identify problems, have difficult conversations—and then work toward solutions.

We believe educational opportunity should never depend on a child's ZIP code, family income, background, or circumstances.

We are starting here, in our own community—Gwinnett County.

But we don't intend to stop here.

We want to connect parents, educators, grandparents, community leaders, and other action-oriented people who believe meaningful change doesn't always have to begin at the top.

Sometimes, it begins around a kitchen table.

Sometimes, it begins with one parent asking a question.

And sometimes, it begins when people who thought they were standing alone finally find one another.

Unite Gwinnett.

Unite Greater Atlanta.

And then...keep going.

Connect families. Strengthen schools. Shape generations.