“What Would Brenda Do?” Fifty Years of Love, Leadership, and Legacy

When the evening’s tribute video ended and the applause died down, Brenda Pesante stood at the podium with tears already flowing. “I’ve been crying for one week and I haven’t even retired yet,” she laughed through her emotion. “I told Tina the other day, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen to me when I do retire.’”

It was a moment that perfectly captured the essence of JEP’s 2025 Community Service Awards dinner: an evening that felt less like a formal ceremony and more like the warmest family reunion imaginable. While the night celebrated many exceptional student leaders, faculty, and community partners, there was no question about who held the center of everyone’s hearts: Brenda Pesante, marking her remarkable 50th anniversary with the Joint Educational Project.

The ballroom at Town & Gown felt electric with anticipation as former student leaders who now had careers and children of their own sat alongside current undergraduates. School coordinators who had worked with Brenda for decades shared tables with USC administrators and community partners. Even USC President Carol L. Folt could not help but give Brenda a special shoutout in her recorded opening remarks.

The statistics alone tell an impressive story: Brenda started at JEP in 1975 as the organization’s third employee ever, when personal computers didn’t exist and placement was managed with typewriters. She has worked under all four JEP executive directors, helped place over 800 students each semester in community schools and organizations, supervised generations of program assistants, and organized countless four-day training retreats that have shaped thousands of student leaders.

But numbers cannot capture what filled the room that night: the profound personal connections that define Brenda’s legacy.

“I have so many memories, too many to actually go through,” Brenda reflected in her acceptance speech. She shared stories that had the audience laughing: being almost nine months pregnant and trying to keep up with tall, fast-walking director Dick Cone on the way to a meeting (“that night I went into labor. I always blamed him!”), or the time students made t-shirts reading “WWBD—What Would Brenda Do?” because they would constantly ask themselves that question when facing challenges.

Tammy Anderson, former JEP director and now Associate Dean for Experiential and Applied Learning, delivered the evening’s longest and most heartfelt tribute. Fighting back tears of her own, she chronicled Brenda’s evolution from meticulous bookkeeper to unofficial director of technology to community partnerships coordinator to beloved mentor of program assistants.

“She has been that person for members of our large JEP family,” Anderson said. “You have been a second mom, a cheerleader, a confidant, mentor, advisor. You celebrate our achievements, offer a shoulder to cry on, and always make yourself available when needed.”

The evening’s tribute video featured voices from across Brenda’s five decades of service. Former student leaders, now adults with careers spanning medicine to education to business, shared how Brenda’s guidance had shaped their lives. School coordinators who had worked with her for decades spoke of her reliability and warmth. USC administrators praised her institutional knowledge and dedication.

“It has been an extreme honor working with Brenda and the JEP family for the past decade,” shared community partner Dionne Patterson in a written note. “I am extremely proud of her accomplishments with USC and it is my privilege to know her and to be in partnership with her team.”

The recognition extended beyond USC’s walls. David Galaviz, Associate Vice President for Community Partnerships, presented a proclamation from Los Angeles City Council Member Curren Price, recognizing Brenda’s “50 years of dedicated service to the USC Joint Educational Project” and her “crucial role in fostering community partnerships and supporting K-12 education in South Los Angeles.”

“Our elected officials and our community partners know about the benefit and the value that you all provide to our community,” Galaviz told the audience, “and a lot of that is due to the great work not just of JEP staff but also of Brenda.”

Perhaps the most touching moment came during Brenda’s own remarks, when she explained why she had stayed at one job for five decades. “The work that we do, it’s so valuable and so much needed,” she said. “The environment of the office is of support and teamwork. Who wouldn’t want to work in a place like this?”

She specifically thanked the school coordinators who help manage student placements – a process she and the current JEP team had streamlined from two days to one remarkable day of placing countless students. “A large part of JEP’s success is due to our long-term partnerships with schools and community-based organizations near the university,” she noted. “Many of the sites that host JEP students have been our partners for more than 40 years.”

But her greatest joy, she said, comes from working with program assistants. “I know each and every year I’ve been blessed to supervise and work with amazing student staff who are smart, hardworking, and inspiring. How special is it tonight to have so many JEP alumni and PAs here?”

To honor Brenda’s dedication to student development, JEP established the Brenda Pesante JEP Training and Retreat Fund. As Anderson explained, these annual retreats are “a huge undertaking” involving some 70 professional staff, graduate students, and undergraduates, requiring complex logistics that Brenda has mastered year after year.

“If we don’t train them, they’ll go out unprepared – and I know our students are fantastic – but they still need some training,” Anderson noted, drawing laughter from an audience full of former trainees who remembered those formative experiences.

The fund ensures that future generations of JEP leaders will benefit from the same careful preparation and community-building that has defined Brenda’s approach to student development.

As the evening wound down with current and former program assistants gathering for a group photo with Brenda, the sense of continuity was unmistakable. Students who had learned leadership under her guidance were now training the next generation, carrying forward the values of service, collaboration, and genuine care that define the JEP family.

Former student leader Haylie Wong perhaps captured it best in a written tribute: “During my three precious years with JEP, I had the following motto ingrained in me, ‘What Would Brenda Do?’ I continue to ask myself that to this day.”

That question, WWBD, represents more than just a fond memory. It embodies the leadership philosophy Brenda has modeled for 50 years: leading with love, offering trust and empowerment, providing unwavering support, and always making time for the people who matter.

As Brenda accepted her Dornsife Award for Exceptional Service, surrounded by five decades of JEP family, one thing was clear: her legacy isn’t measured in years of service or programs managed or students placed. It’s measured in the countless lives she has touched, the leaders she has shaped, and the community she has helped build.

“This award is a reminder of the importance of pursuing passion, pushing boundaries, and staying true to one’s vision no matter the challenges,” Brenda concluded. “I hope to continue to grow, learn, and contribute in a meaningful way to JEP’s goal and vision. Serve on!”