Growing up in New Kent County, Patricia Bradby envisioned a career performing in the music industry. But once she got to New York University, she was drawn to the business side, leading to work in marketing and logistics for live music events.
She also had another realization at the university. While she was living in the middle of a city, she says, NYU “was very much a bubble.”
She brainstormed with the dean of the school about ways to connect with the city. The result was a program that sent college students into middle schools to teach art students about business and marketing. They turned art into fundraising projects.
It became a full-blown nonprofit, Bradby says. “I wanted those kids to have the option to pursue something they love the same way I did.”
After business school and other jobs, Bradby returned to Richmond. She pursued several volunteer passions, including the Doorway, which led her to her current job in June 2016 with the servant leadership education program Leadership Metro Richmond.
She also connected with TEDxRVA, after which she founded the TEDxRVASalon series. And in September she moved from the junior board to the full board of the Better Housing Coalition.
