Brianna Mason Broady (’17, ’18)

Category: Alumni Promise | Awards

2022 Alumni Promise Award Winner

Brianna Mason Broady started Advocates for Autism as a campus organization at UT while she was a student. In 2017, Broady received a bachelor’s degree in psychology and one year later, a master’s in elementary education. She was the recipient of two distinguished scholarships: a Charles Lattimore Graduate Scholarship and a membership in the Urban Multicultural Education Cohort. After teaching first grade for one year, she took a detour in 2019 after being crowned Miss Tennessee. Broady was the first black woman to represent the state at Miss America in its 90-plus year history.

As Miss Tennessee, Broady traveled over 30,000 miles around the state as the organization’s representative. During that time she worked with the Tennessee Department of Education as the Spokesperson for Reading Literacy and the Whole Child Initiative. She was also the State Ambassador for our five Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, along with other roles. With her platform on autism awareness, she reached over 30,000 people on her social media platforms and more national audiences through several networks, including CNN, BET, and NBC.

Inspired by a family member, Broady and her husband established Advocates for Autism as a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness of, and educating others on, autism. Once only a UT campus initiative, the organization has started other collegiate chapters to raise awareness and support students on campuses across the State of Tennessee. In addition to her nonprofit, Broady has served as the State Ambassador for Autism Tennessee and partnered with the Tennessee Council on Autism Spectrum Disorder and other agencies to provide resources and sensory-free spaces.

Broady is currently a teacher at Bellshire Design Center Elementary School in Nashville and maintains advocacy work for people living with autism. She is a member of the Nashville Metropolitan Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She spends her free time with her husband TJ and their cats, Knight and Neyland.