#MasonComm Celebrates Our Administrative Professionals: Brittany Sanders

by Jennifer Shaskan

#MasonComm Celebrates Our Administrative Professionals:  Brittany Sanders

Brittany Sanders is the Graduate Coordinator for the Department of Communication. Within this role Sanders takes on the duties required to have the PhD and Masters programs run as smoothly as possible. These duties range from administrative tasks, recruitment, application processing, advising, and purchasing for events. Sanders enjoys her job because of the people she works with daily. She describes our department as “a good environment for people like myself who like to be proactive and make things better. Everyone is really supportive and open to those new ideas.”

In 2020, Sanders won the Mary Roper Award honoring her outstanding service in support of the core goals of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. This award reflects the positive impact that Sanders has had on the department, both with our students and our faculty and staff. Sanders explained that, “some people tend to lose sight of why we’re all here. As staff, faculty, and administration we’re here because of the students. Students are why we’re here and who we’re here to serve so everything we need to do, needs to be done with that in mind.”

While this award came as a shock to Sanders, it was not surprising to those who know her and know the value she adds to our department. Maria Carabelli, Office Manager and Finance Coordinator, explained “Brittany encompasses all of the attributes that the Mary Roper Award represents. She is a hardworking, dedicated staff member of our department and the award is very well deserved.”

For current students, Sanders advises them to take advantage of opportunities, pay attention to emails, network as much as possible, and don’t ever think you’re not good enough to apply to a job. “Maximize your time here and if you truly take advantage of those things, I guarantee you’ll come out of here with a job or at least knowing really good contacts that could help lead to something” said Sanders.