Dr. Brenda Watts Jones

2008 Bridge Builder Honorees

Dr. Brenda Watts Jones (1952-2007)


As leader of Atlanta Technical College since 1996, Dr. Brenda Watts Jones inherited a struggling institution and transformed it into an educational powerhouse. Her visionary leadership brought national and international recognition to Atlanta Tech. For more than twenty years, Dr. Jones was on the frontlines of higher education. She was the first and only African-American female to lead a technical college in Georgia. The Daphne, Alabama, native earned her BA in sociology from Dillard University before completing graduate work at Atlanta University and Georgia State University. She was tapped to lead then—Atlanta Technical Institute in 1997. Dr. Jones directed one of the fastest-growing and busiest technical colleges in the state. It was Dr. Jones’s efforts that led to the establishment of the Atlanta Technical College Foundation in September 1999. The Bridge Builder Awards, the Foundation’s major annual fundraising event, was the incredible brainchild of Dr. Jones. We are striving each day to continue the legacy that she left for Atlanta Tech and the Atlanta community.