Director, Leadership and Undergraduate Research
College of Human Ecology
160 MVR
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
Phone: 607-255-2293
Email: bhb4@cornell.edu

Brenda Bricker has provided leadership in undergraduate programs at Cornell since 1970. Most of her career focused on admissions and student services with 8 years as Director of Undergraduate Affairs in the College of Human Ecology. In 2001 she made a dramatic shift in role, and for 5 years has focused on developing and managing programs in undergraduate research and leadership, particularly creating and teaching courses that lead to a leadership certificate. She also facilitates non-credit leadership experiences for outstanding Cornell students.

Brenda created Human Ecology’s Leadership Initiative (LI), a certificate program open to all Human Ecology students. The certificate program encourages entrepreneurial and collaborative attitudes and actions to benefit students’ personal development and prepare them to mobilize people to make progress on the toughest challenges facing our families, communities and societies. The course sequence includes HE 301, Collaborative Leadership, a broad introduction to the theory and practice of leadership with an emphasis on teamwork and shared vision.

Students work in teams to create a project focus, research and identify a community need, and design a sustainable project that addresses this need. Second-level leadership students help teach Collaborative Leadership, provide individual coaching, and advise teams through process challenges. They use real experience and context as a focus of instruction and reflection. Advanced students complete their own honors leadership projects and take HE 405, Mentoring in Leadership, in which they explore evaluation, write grant proposals, lobbying materials, press releases. They work to complete, fund and sustain their leadership projects.

HE 407, Leadership in Nonprofits, focuses on the private, charitable focus of the non-profit sector. Students create an RFP to encourage community nonprofits to apply for project funding and then select winning project proposals for funding provided by the Sunshine Lady Foundation. Students learn to write grant proposals by creating one for a project of his/her choice. This course considers issues as diverse as the history and economics of nonprofits, the motivation to give, the challenges of nonprofit management, the branding of an individual organization, and many other topics.

In addition to her leadership focus, Brenda provides a year-long introduction to research for more than 50 freshmen college scholars, advises 400 undergraduate researchers, and manages the college honors program and a number of other award and recognition programs.