‘Everyone Belongs at the UND Pride Center’

Couple creates LGBTQ+ Endowment to build a legacy of inclusivity and connection.

For Dr. Bridget Brooks, ’96, ’22, the University of North Dakota is more than a place of learning — it’s a community that has shaped her journey and inspired her to give back. Alongside her wife, Jody Little, Bridget, a Teaching Transformation and Development Academy Instructional Designer on campus, has established an endowment for the University’s Pride Center, the only LGBTQ+ center at a North Dakota higher education institution.

Bridget said the Pride Center is a vital resource, offering a safe and welcoming space for students to find acceptance and belonging. Bridget’s connection to the center began when she returned to UND to work and discovered the University’s “Out List” — a public roster of LGBTQ+ faculty and staff. “I stood at my desk with tears streaming down my face,” she recalled. “The strength of those individuals inspired me to embrace my own role in creating a supportive campus environment.”

Bridget and Jody’s goal is for the endowment to reach a funding level that could sustain the Pride Center indefinitely. For that to happen, they need the support of other donors. “Every one of us knows someone who is LGBTQ+. Whether or not someone has shared that with you, you do know and possibly even love someone who is. Being a member of the LGBTQ+ community is hard — it took me 34 years to admit it to myself. If you can give a gift that brings even a small amount of joy to someone else, do it.

A donation to the LGBTQ+ Endowment and the Pride Center can bring that joy and provide a place of community when everyone else has said, ‘You don’t belong here.’ Everyone belongs at the UND Pride Center.” To date, 18 UND alumni and friends have supported the LGBTQ+ Endowment.

Bridget and Jody have also made a legacy gift to establish a scholarship endowment to help a tribal college graduate attend UND. Bridget said their generosity reflects their gratitude to UND. Not only has Bridget earned two degrees from UND and works on campus, but the pair are “huge” UND Hockey fans. “This University gave us so much,” Bridget explained. “We’ll never be able to repay it entirely, but this is our legacy: making someone else’s future better.”

If you would like to help fund the UND LGBTQ+ Endowment, visit pd.UNDalumni.org/give-und-lgbtq.