President Ed Schrader Recognized in Junior Achievement Hall of Fame

Brenau President Ed Schrader

Brenau University President Ed Schrader joined the ranks recognized as Northeast Georgia’s greatest economic development leaders on Saturday, Feb. 3, during his induction into the Junior Achievement Northeast Georgia Business Hall of Fame alongside John Addison, former co-CEO of the insurance and financial services marketing company Primerica.

According to the organization’s award citation, Schrader during his 13 years at Brenau has been a catalyst for major growth. As the 10th president of the 140-year-old institution, he has preserved the historic Women’s College while adding job-producing coeducational programs, including doctorates in nursing, occupational therapy and physical therapy. Brenau has also expanded its footprint from the 57-acre campus in Gainesville, growing operations on Georgia campuses in Augusta, Norcross and Fairburn, as well as a campus in Jacksonville, Florida.

“This May, I will have the opportunity to shake the hand and offer a degree to about the 15,000th graduate of Brenau,” said Schrader. “I say now what I said 13 years ago: I am sure that there is one, if not two – if not 10, if not more – recipients of that degree that will change the world, and if not for the opportunity they received at Brenau, would not have done so.”

Schrader said more than 50 percent of Brenau graduates are also first-time, first-generation college attendees. “Not just graduates, but attendees,” he said. “Do you know what that does to the families of those attendees? It literally is world-changing.”

In a video made by the organization, renowned Gainesville businessman, secretary of the Brenau Board of Trustees and Junior Achievement Hall of Fame laureate Jim Walters called Schrader “a good friend” and credited his business-minded approach to leading the university.

“I was on the selection committee when Ed was selected to lead Brenau, and I have not been disappointed since,” Walters said.

Schrader thanked his wife, Myra, and grown children, Melanie and Edward, who were also featured in the video, as well as the community at large for its support.

“The trustees of Brenau were extremely generous in 2004 when they offered me the opportunity to come to Gainesville,” he said. “Myra and I have enjoyed Gainesville ever since. We love the people here and the opportunities here, and I thank you for that.”

Junior Achievement is the nation’s largest organization dedicated to inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy, a mission that has much in common with Brenau.

Schrader and Addison join Walters and other Hall of Fame laureates such as Abit Massey, president emeritus of the Georgia Poultry Federation; Philip Wilheit, Sr., president and managing partner of Wilheit Packaging and vice chair of the Brenau Board of Trustees; the late John Jacobs Jr., Brenau trustee and benefactor and a radio pioneer in North Georgia; and Carole Ann Daniel, a Brenau Women’s College alumna who is business development executive for Carroll Daniel Construction and treasurer of the Brenau Board of Trustees; to name a few.