Brittany Reese groggily rolled out of her twin-sized bed in her Muhlenberg College dorm room and glanced at her alarm clock.
Almost noon. Panic set in. She bolted out of her dorm still in pajamas with unbrushed hair, down the stairs and across campus for class registration.
By the time she arrived, most of the classes she wanted were gone. Reese was a college volleyball player and cinematography major with dreams of working for ESPN. Yet that morning, one last-minute class enrollment would be the turning point for her future.
She signed up for “Introduction to Education” merely to fill a requirement.
“Well whatever — what’s the harm?” she remembers thinking while clicking the registration button.
She had no intention of becoming a teacher. Her mother was one and her sister was studying to be one. Reese wanted to be different.
But sitting in the classroom, she found herself reflecting on the teachers she’d had, both good and bad.
“I would think, ‘Wow, my teacher never did this, that’s not good,’” Reese said. “And maybe a little competitive edge of me was saying, ‘Well, I could do that way better.’”
Fifteen years later, that same determination and competitiveness led her to become the newly appointed and first female principal of Broughal Middle School in Bethlehem, the place she’d been teaching at for the past eight years.
After graduating from Muhlenberg in 2010, Reese taught in Allentown and then moved to Charleston, South Carolina, where she continued to teach and earn her master’s degree in health, exercise and sports science.
Nearly five years later, she returned home to work with students in the Alternative Education for Disruptive Youth program in Allentown — a job she said tested her patience and compassion. In 2018, she joined Broughal’s staff, where she quickly became known for her energy and connection with students.
When she first began her career, she questioned whether teaching was the right path. Once she began forming connections with her students, she said she knew she made the right decision.
Those relationships remained central to her work. In her first year of teaching, a student gave her a hand-drawn Philadelphia Eagles logo and told her to take it wherever she goes. That picture is now laminated, framed and hanging in her principal’s office.
“I have trinkets from along the last 15 years of things that kids gave me,” Reese said. “It wasn’t a gift, but a piece of themselves. My ‘aha’ moments are constantly happening.”
In Reese’s first year teaching at Broughal, English teacher Rebecca Keptner was in the classroom next to her. Keptner said Reese was her sanity throughout the day.
In Keptner’s class, she would ring a bell when a student finished reading a book and Reese would come flying into Keptner’s classroom to clap and celebrate with the students.
“It was such a great thing, because first off she was, of course, celebrating the accomplishment of the student, but also was doing it in support of what I was doing,” Keptner said. “This very twofold support encouragement in the academic setting is great for a principal; supporting the kids and having enthusiasm for teachers.”
Keptner joked that Reese is referred to as an Olive Garden hostess because she rolls through the halls with her standing desk on wheels, always stopping to check in on classrooms.
When Broughal offered Reese the dean of students position last year, she was hesitant to leave the classroom. She liked that every day was different and she could build student relationships.
Yet Reese’s understanding of Broughal’s culture and belief in its students convinced her to take on the challenge.
“I was raised by Broughal, this place is special to me,” Reese said. “I got engaged and married here, had two kids as I was here, and not only did I grow personally into who I think I’m becoming, but I grew professionally going from teacher to dean and then jumping into principal.”
Despite the role change, Reese stays involved in the daily lives of her students. She attends every lunch and recess duty, using those informal moments to build trust so she can make difficult conversations possible.
“I’m throwing a football with a kid two days ago, but today I had to pull them into my office and say, ‘Hey, bud, why’d you make this poor choice?’” Reese said. “But it’s good to already have that connection and trust.”
She regularly meets with teachers to identify which students need extra support and strives to push them beyond expectations.
She said one of her biggest goals is improving literacy and math proficiency across grade levels — not just for test scores, but for her students’ future endeavors, like reading contracts, job applications and news articles.
Reese is also working to strengthen community partnerships and organizations to meet students’ needs beyond the classroom. Local businesses like Batch Microcreamery have partnered with Broughal to offer free ice cream and discounts to students.
She collaborates with Anais Martinez, a Lehigh Community Service Office employee who connects Broughal students to food and hygiene essentials. The two have worked to coordinate food drives, hygiene and clothing donations, and events that attract local role models for students like the Lehigh basketball team and the Community Action Committee of Lehigh Valley.
Martinez said Reese recognizes the only way students can achieve ultimate academic success is to remove barriers that distract them, like not having basic needs met at home.
“She really does care about the kids,” Martinez said. “She listens to them whenever they need to express their emotions and helps them process what they are going through. That’s what makes a difference.”
Reese’s competitive spirit is evident in every role she takes on. She advocates for her students and is dedicated to providing them with the highest level of care, education and support.
Outside of work she brings that same passion and commitment to her own children, who she calls her “Broughal babies.” She brings them to school volleyball games where they sit with the cheerleaders and greet staff by name.
Reese said she hopes all Broughal students feel that same sense of belonging when they walk through the school’s doors.
She said she’s looking to reshape how the wider community sees Broughal by inviting alumni back to see the school’s progress and reconnect. She wants to make Broughal better and proudly show off the students.
As a first-time principal, Reese said she knows she’s still learning. But that same competitive spark she felt in her education class is her motivating drive to make Broughal better.
“I put pressure on myself because I think our kids deserve it,” Reese said. “I may not be the most experienced, but you are not going to outwork me. I’m going to learn and grow as much as I can.”