About us

The James Brister Society is a diverse group of University of Pennsylvania alumni volunteer leaders. These leaders, by power of their example, support and promote the University of Pennsylvania's efforts to attract, encourage, and maintain a culturally diverse community of faculty, students, administrators, staff, and volunteers, thus enriching the University community as a whole.

The goals of The James Brister Society are:

• To encourage the University to utilize alumni from diverse backgrounds as leaders.
• To advocate the advancement of and improve the environment for faculty, students and administrators from diverse backgrounds.
• To strengthen alumni affiliations with the University and generate on-going financial commitment from alumni with diverse backgrounds.
• To encourage mentoring and networking of alumni and students and promote linkages with the University.

Questions about JBS? Please contact Daina Richie-Troy at richie17@upenn.edu.

Interested in becoming a JBS member? Apply here!

Land Acknowledgement for the University of Pennsylvania

We recognize and acknowledge that the University of Pennsylvania stands on the Indigenous territory known as “Lenapehoking,” the traditional homelands of the Lenape, also called Lenni-Lenape or Delaware Indians. These are the people who, during the 1680s, negotiated with William Penn to facilitate the founding of the colony of Pennsylvania. Their descendants today include the Delaware Tribe and Delaware Nation of Oklahoma; the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Ramapough Lenape, and Powhatan Renape of New Jersey; and the Munsee Delaware of Ontario.