Throughout the summer, we'll be checking in with the Brandeis Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2025. The ceremony will be held in conjunction with Homecoming on October 11, 2025. Registration is now open! 

Click here view more Hall of Fame and Alumni Spotlights!

NAME: Emily Bryson, Class of 2019
SPORT: Cross Country and Track and Field
CURRENT JOB: Research and Program Coordinator, Boston Children's Hospital

Emily Bryson is one of the most decorated track and field athletes in Brandeis history, certainly in the 21st century. She earned nine All-America honors and four NCAA Division III Championships in her career. She was the UAA Cross Country Rookie and Performer of the Year as a first-year in 2015, coming from behind to win the conference title at home in Franklin Park. As a senior, she was the UAA Indoor Track and Field Performer of the Year. At the NCAA track and field championships, her crowns came in the mile, 3000-m run and the distance medley relay indoors, and in the 1,500-m run outdoors, while her cross country All-America accolades improved each year until a fifth-place finish as a senior. Bryson still holds six school records, including in the DMR, where her mark is shared with her twin sister, Julia.

Bryson graduated with B.S. degrees in Biology and in Health: Science, Society and Policy. She has been working at Boston Children's Hospital since interning in the Neurology department in the summer before her senior year. Since graduating from Brandeis, she has continued to work in the Adolescent Medicine Department and Community Asthma Initiative program at Boston Children's as a Research and Program Coordinator.

Q: What attracted you to Brandeis in the first place?
I was looking for a liberal arts school in the Boston area, with a strong biology program and cross country and track and field teams. I came from a small high school team, but had a great high school coach in Geoff Hennessy, and knew I wanted something similar in college. I always felt I would get swallowed up in some big program and wanted the more individualized coaching that comes with a smaller team and ultimately found that in Brandeis. I also really connected with coach Sinead Evans when she recruited me and knew she was the right coaching fit for me in this next chapter of my running career. 

Q: Describe your overall experience as a student-athlete. What does it mean to you now/what did it mean to you while you were an undergraduate? 
I'm so grateful for the incredible experience I had as a student-athlete while at Brandeis. I was surrounded by so many amazing people who really helped make my experience what it was. From teammates and coaches to professors and administrators, my experience was shaped largely by the people who supported me through it. Specifically, my coach Sinead Evans, was an incredible coach, mentor and all-around person during my time at Brandeis, and I don't think I would have accomplished the athletic feats I did without her. She had so much belief and confidence in what I could do, often more than I had in myself, and it was the strong trust and bond that we had with one another that made her coaching so impactful. I also feel so grateful to have met and still be friends with so many amazing teammates. I never had the quintessential cross country and track team experiences in high school, so coming to Brandeis and having that team experience and meeting so many other ambitious and supportive teammates was and still is so valuable to me.

As a student-athlete, balancing athletics and academics was at times challenging, but ultimately forced me to become a more disciplined, diligent and well-balanced person and allowed me to really make the most of my 4 years. I always felt that being an athlete in some ways actually made me a better student because I took the same work ethic and confidence that I created on the track and carried it over to the classroom. Even though the time I had to dedicate to my schoolwork was more limited, it forced me to be more focused during the time I actually had to study. 

Looking back, I gained and learned so much from my Brandeis experience, and I continue to carry so many of these lessons with me in my professional and personal life today.

Q: What did it mean to you to be able to compete on a team with your twin sister?
I feel so grateful to have had the opportunity to compete on the cross country and track and field teams with my twin sister, Julia. It's funny because we never intended to attend college together, and at one point even intentionally wanted to go to different schools to have separate college experiences, but I'm so happy that we both ended up at Brandeis and got to share so many fun experiences and athletic accomplishments together. 

Julia was always my biggest supporter and the person I really relied on to keep me grounded during overwhelming moments or give me the confidence boosts I needed before big races. We have a sort of unspoken communication with one another, and have always been very perceptive in gauging how the other is feeling, so it was always comforting to know I always had someone with me who knew me so well and vice versa. It was also really motivating to have been able to share in so many athletic goals together, from qualifying for the NCAA Cross Country Championships as a team or winning an NCAA title together our senior year. We had such fun sharing in each other's successes and always knew exactly how to keep each other motivated. Looking back, I can't imagine having had the experiences I did without her and now it's fun to be able to reminisce on so many great shared memories together.

Q: Do you have any advice for current or future Brandeis Student-Athletes?
Have fun and enjoy the moment! It's the advice that was always given to me by my dad before all my races and always helped me put my experiences in perspective. Despite the pressure and the nerves of competing, it's important to remember that at the end of the day, we do this because it's our passion and we love it. Four years go by so quickly and one day looking back you'll miss these moments, so it's important to be present, make the most of every opportunity and enjoy the experience as much as possible. 

Q: Do you keep in touch with any of your former Brandeis teammates? How?
Yes, I still keep in touch with many of my former Brandeis teammates! Those who live in the area, I try to see when I can and I communicate with many others via text or video chat. I recently got to support some of my former teammates at the Boston Marathon this past spring, and spectated with a couple others as well. I also try to run with teammates when I can and particularly love meeting back up at Brandeis to run some of our old favorite routes together.

Q: Looking back on your career at Brandeis, do you have any one or two moments that you look back on and cherish? 
The moment I look back on the most and cherish is winning an NCAA title in the Distance Medley Relay (DMR) with my twin sister Julia, ??Doyin Ogundiran 19' and Devin Hiltunen 23' in 2019. This was a race years in the making and the win felt like such a culmination of hard work, patience, confidence and trust in the process. Crossing that finishing line, holding the baton, and seeing it all come together exactly as we planned was so surreal and fulfilling. I'm so grateful to have been able to share all the excitement and emotions of that moment with 3 other incredibly deserving people. The moment was even sweeter since we won the title in Boston at the Reggie Lewis Center, a track my sister and I raced on routinely when we were in high school, so it was so special to return there with that race. We were also so fortunate to have had so many teammates there supporting and cheering for us. I can always remember feeling all the excitement and energy at that last turn right before the finish line where they were all standing. It really made the moment feel like it was so much bigger than the 4 of us and like a huge win for the program. It was also special to share the moment with my family, sharing the title with my twin sister and having my parents supporting us, as always, in the stands.

Looking back I'm always just so proud and impressed that the 4 of us were all able to execute our races on that given day, show up for each other, and love that now it is an experience and title that we will always share together.

Another moment would probably be winning my first NCAA title at the 2018 Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Alabama, in the 3000 meters. I spent years dreaming of that moment and pursuing that goal, so crossing that line and realizing the moment had finally come to fruition was such a gratifying experience of just complete shock and a lot of emotion. I also came in to that race as the last seed and definitely felt like a bit of an underdog, but was so confident having run the DMR the night before (we were 3rd that year), and just remember kicking so hard in that last lap, thinking about how badly I wanted the win, and pouring out everything I had left to get to the line first.

Q: What personal or professional accomplishments are you most proud of since you graduated?
Since graduating, I've been fortunate to work at Boston Children's Hospital with the Adolescent Medicine Department and Community Asthma Initiative program. I've had the opportunity to lead and contribute to some published works, give local and national presentations and am excited to use these opportunities in the next chapter of my professional life as I look at applying to grad school.

Q: How does it feel to be inducted into the Hall of Fame so soon after graduating from Brandeis?
It feels very surreal and is such a huge honor to be inducted into the Hall of Fame so soon after graduating. It was definitely something I thought about and aspired towards while at Brandeis, but thought it might happen much later on, so I was very surprised when I got the call, and am excited to be back at Brandeis later this fall and share this honor with my other nominees!