Giuliana N. Brink

O.B. Gates Elementary School
Chesterfield County Public Schools
Chesterfield, Virginia
[email protected]

Giuliana Brink has served O.B. Gates Elementary School for 20 years–five as assistant principal and 15 as principal. In that time, she has helped define the school as an innovative learning center, where students of all backgrounds and abilities thrive. This unique K-5 school serves a student body that is racially, culturally, and ability-diverse, with the distinction of being home to multiple specialty education programs for students with a range of disabilities and two boundary-breaking Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs. In 2019, Brink helped launch a first-in-the-nation DLI program for American Sign Language that will soon serve students K-5. The program has helped to integrate the school’s deaf and hard-of-hearing population into the general educational school culture by breaking isolation and language barriers, while opening up new learning opportunities for all participating students. The school also houses the state’s first Mandarin Chinese DLI program and has plans to launch a third DLI program in Spanish in 2026-2027. In addition to significant media praise for these programs, Gates has earned accolades for its commitment to STEM education, and Brink recently received the REB Distinguished Principal Leadership award for the school’s new STEAM and Innovation Learning Lab, which allows students to engage in problem-based learning across age cohorts. Brink holds a B.S. from Radford University and an M.Ed. in Administration and Leadership from Grand Canyon University.