Editor’s note: This is the second in a five-part series profiling leaders of diverse communities on and off campus in Athens.
Winsome Chunnu-Brayda had never been to rural America when she hopped on a plane and left her home in Jamaica to study hospitality at Hocking College in 1999.
She said she didn’t know what to expect, but the resort she worked at had ties with Hocking College, so she accepted a scholarship and ended up falling in love with the Athens region.
After finishing her undergrad at Huston-Tillotson University, Chunnu-Brayda returned to Athens and completed her masters and doctorate at Ohio University.
While Chunnu-Brayda was interning in Washington, D.C., Linda Daniels, director of the Multicultural Center and Office of Multicultural Programs, asked her to take the then-newly opened position as associate director, and after some persuasion, she accepted.
“She had been a graduate assistant with us for a year, and then went to residence life for a year, but I immediately thought of her when the position opened,” Daniels said. “It wasn’t an anticipated opening and would have been difficult to fill … but I knew she could really hit the ground running, and that was important.”
As the associate director of the Multicultural Center, Chunnu-Brayda is an adviser for the Black Student Cultural Programing Board, helps plan the various heritage month programs, as well as cultural events, and sits on various committees.
Chunnu-Brayda said she doesn’t get overwhelmed easily, but her job is time consuming.
“It’s hard for me to say no … and my husband gets frustrated sometimes because he says he sees me half an hour in the morning and half an hour at night,” she said. “I’ve said to myself that I need to do things differently this year to make more time, but it hasn’t been too successful yet.”
Chunnu-Brayda and her husband, Jason Brayda, met while studying at OU and married two years ago.
Although she hasn’t been home in two years, Chunnu-Brayda said she likes to keep up with what’s happening in Jamaica, especially because she is still an international citizen.
Having always loved politics, she said she dreamt of being Jamaica’s ambassador to Nigeria and would like to work abroad at some point, but for now, helping students is what she likes to do.
“I like to see how much they’ve matured and the role I’ve played in that growth,” she said.
The thing about Chunnu-Brayda is that she goes above and beyond what her job entails, said Kent Harris, a member of the Black Student Cultural Programming Board and a junior studying interactive multimedia design and media and social change.
“She doesn’t have to want better for us; it’s not her job,” Harris said. “She doesn’t have to be our mentor, but she acts as a mentor for a lot of people anyway.”
ao007510@ohiou.edu
