Sonali Anderson’s time at Brandeis has been defined by her desire to overcome hurdles, both literal and figurative.
On the track, she has leapt over them with grace and speed, setting school records in the process.
Off the track, she’s made it part of her mission to improve equity for people of color across campus, first as one of the architects of the Black Action Plan, a document formulated over the summer and fall of 2020, and more recently as one of the undergraduate representatives to the Board of Trustees.
A native of Fayetteville, Georgia, Anderson was looking to escape her hometown when she was conducting her college search. Seeing many of her classmates going to the same types of colleges, she came to an important understanding. “Being around the same people doesn’t really lead to growth,” Anderson realized. “I felt I needed to step outside my comfort zone.”
An attraction to the Northeast saw her applying to schools in New York and Massachusetts. Her mother encouraged Anderson to visit Brandeis, but it was an overnight visit that sealed the deal. She stayed with the team’s current captain, Andrea Bolduc ‘21, and a former sprinter, Jordan Brill-Cass ‘21.
“They were the type of people that I had never met in my life,” Anderson recalled. “They were very open with me from the beginning, and I was coming from a place that was very close-minded. I didn’t spend a lot of time here, but I already felt like I was part of the community.”
Anderson had started running track in middle school and began taking it seriously as a first-year in high school. Though she was recruited by some larger programs, that overnight visit to Brandeis sealed the deal. She started her career running the 400-meter dash and 800-meter run, but took up the hurdles the summer before her junior year of high school. As a senior, Anderson’s mother took note of the school record at Brandeis, then 9.97 seconds, and encouraged Sonali to go after the mark. In her first meet as a Judge, she shaved more than a third of a second off of the old record, then lowered it again in her first home meet. She has brought it down a total of six times in her career, settling at 9.28 seconds during the preliminary round of the UAA Championships at Gosman in 2019.
Anderson also lowered the school record in the 100-meter hurdles at her first outdoor meet, lowering the mark to 15.21 seconds, just shy of six-tenths of a second faster than the old mark.
“Sonali is a tremendous athlete,” said track and field assistant Nick Athanasopoulos, who coaches the team’s sprinters and hurdlers. “She is really competitive and looks to get after it at practice every day. She doesn't accept anything but the best from herself.”
With all that she brings to the track, Anderson also finds that track helps bring an important balance to her life. Being part of the team helps define the structure of her day. “If I have practice at this time, then I have to spend the time before or after on a paper or another assignment,” she noted. “Plus, I always feel better after a workout. My mind is always a lot clearer.”
Over the summer of 2020, Anderson became more concerned with the hurdles facing the entire country. With America in the throes of protest over the killing of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, Anderson was moved to help effect change. After seeing so many companies, colleges and universities react to the events of last summer in what she felt was an inauthentic manner, she collaborated with DeBorah Ault ‘22 to have an influence on a place where she felt her voice would best be heard, the Brandeis campus.
Together, they developed the Black Action Plan, a document that enumerated the racial issues that people of color had experienced on campus. It went beyond that, as well, to develop solutions to the issues. Anderson and Ault, in synthesizing the issues, were able to gain a place at the table with President Ron Liebowitz. They also met with other senior staff members, including Vice President of Student Affairs Raymond Ou and Chief Diversity Officer and Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Mark Brimhall-Vargas, both of whom she has worked with closely in bringing the Black Action Plan to life. Even to them, however, her position as an undergraduate representative to the board was a surprise.
“It was a very strategic decision,” Anderson said. “The Board are the ones who really decide if something is going to happen, so I wanted to put myself in a position to be heard by them.”
Anderson has been part of two major meetings with the board since joining, plus a committee meeting this month. In addition, she has had weekly meetings not only with Brimhall-Vargas, but also with Chairman of the Board Meyer Koplow.
“She’s been an extraordinary leader and very consistent and reliable in her work with us,” said Brimhall-Vargas. “I actually find it astonishing that she can also maintain her studies and her athletics.”
Anderson says she prepares for her meetings with the Board by doing something simple: listening. She listens to her teammates at practice and her classmates on campus to find out what their pressing needs are. She listens at the meetings themselves, paying attention to whether or not she feels that students’ concerns are being properly addressed, interjecting herself when they are not.
Anderson sees progress being made, slowly but surely. The communication efforts between the administration and various departments on campus has been much improved in her eyes. In ways, her experience with the Board and leadership on campus is similar to those hurdles in which she excels on the track.
“It takes a minute, but having done this for a semester, having learned the pace and rhythm to it, I hope we can make it go a little bit quicker next semester,” she said.
- by Adam Levin '94, sports information director