Bloustein School faculty members (from left to right) Clint Andrews, Briavel Holcomb, an unnamed student, Kelcie Ralph, and Robert Noland.
The Bloustein School is saddened to announce the passing of Briavel Holcomb, 83, Professor Emeritus and former coordinator of the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program, on September 27, 2025.
Dr. Holcomb joined the Rutgers faculty in 1972 as a member of the graduate faculties of urban planning, geography, and women’s studies. She served as Chair of the Department of Urban Studies and Community Health from 1980-86 and again from 1991-95. She also served as Acting Director of the Women’s Studies Program in 1987.
From 1998-99 and 2001-02, she served as Director of the Graduate Program in Geography. She became the acting University Coordinator of the Humphrey Fellowship Program at the Bloustein School in 2001 before serving as the program’s coordinator from 2004 to 2006. She also served as the Coordinator of the Bloustein School’s Voorhees Public Service Fellowship Program from 2008-10, and was a member of the Teacher Education Faculty at Rutgers Graduate School of Education.
“We use many compliments when describing academics. They include ‘brilliant,’ ‘industrious,’ and ‘inspirational.’ But the best and most appropriate compliment for Bria was an even more important one, ‘kind,’’’ said Stuart Shapiro, Professor and Dean of the Bloustein School. “She was kind to her students, to her colleagues, and to our staff. That is why we will all miss her so much.”
In addition to her Rutgers teaching career, Dr. Holcomb was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Malta and a visiting professor at the University of Exeter (UK), the New School (NY), the University of Colorado, and the University of Pittsburgh’s Semester at Sea program. She was elected to the Councils of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) and the American Geographical Society and was President of the Middle States Region of the AAG. She also served on the editorial boards of The Annals of American Geography, The Professional Geographer, Focus, and Urban Affairs Review.
“As a colleague, Bria was someone whom we could count on to take on tasks that others avoided. One of these was department chair, a position she held for many years,” said Distinguished Professor Emeritus Michael R. Greenberg. “When the college looked for faculty to live in the early dorms, Bria and her husband, Michael, lived in a dorm to help guide the students.”
Dr. Greenberg served on the search committee to hire Dr. Holcomb more than five decades ago, noting her interest in community development and geography. “She truly enjoyed teaching. Several times, she taught extra courses to test some new ideas. She also taught on many Summer at Sea trips, always coming back with interesting stories about what she learned as a teacher and mentor on these trips. It came as no surprise to us when she began to focus on tourism as her specialty,” he continued, recalling a 2001 paper, “Gender, tourism, and development in Latin America.” The paper, which explores women as both producers and consumers of tourism, was written in collaboration with Antonia Casellas.
Born in the United Kingdom, Dr. Holcomb earned a Bachelor of Science with honors in geography from the University of Nottingham as well as a Diploma of Education from Oxford University. Prior to her arrival at Rutgers, she was a Certified Secondary School Teacher in the UK, teaching geography to students in grades 6-12 at St. Anne’s Convent School in London.
After moving to the United States, she attended the University of Colorado. She earned both an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Geography and completed her dissertation on “The Influence of Culture on Perception of the Urban Environment.” She spent five years as a teaching assistant and associate in the Department of Geography at the University of Colorado. Dr. Holcomb also worked as a research assistant on a one-year National Science Foundation Cooperative College-School Science project—an eighth-grade social studies curriculum and teacher training project—before moving to New Jersey.
Her publications include three books and numerous articles and book chapters. In “Women’s Lives and Public Policy: The International Experience,” Dr. Holcomb and fellow Bloustein professor Meredith Turshen consider the impact of public policy on various aspects of women’s lives, including sex and birth, marriage and death, work and childrearing, and women’s responses to those policies. Her research and writing spanned the areas of geography and urban planning, including tourism, leisure, and hospitality; gender and heritage; re-making and marketing cities; urban revitalization; poverty; the role of women in cities and urban development; and more.
The recipient of numerous awards and grants, she was awarded Rutgers’ Warren I. Susman Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Livingston College Distinguished Fellows Award, the Distinguished Teaching Achievement Award from the National Council for Geographic Education, and the Distinguished Teaching Honors Award from the Association of American Geographers, the highest honor offered by the AAG.
In addition to her graduate teaching course load, Dr. Holcomb served as dissertation advisor to numerous Ph.D. students. She also enjoyed teaching in the Rutgers-New Brunswick Office of Undergraduate Education’s Byrne Seminars, small, one-credit courses offered only to first-year students. Her regular offering was “R.U. Happy?” in which she helped students explore the concept of happiness from various perspectives, including the philosophy of happiness, positive psychology, life satisfaction measures, public policy, and different religious ideas of heaven. The class culminated in a walking tour of New Brunswick, showcasing spaces and places new to the area that visitors would not normally encounter. “My secret agenda,” she told us back then, “was to get them to know where the Bloustein School is!”
At Rutgers, she also enjoyed interacting with the community by conducting walking tours of New Brunswick and its changing landscape. Recognizing her dedication to both Rutgers and New Brunswick, the Rutgers Department of Geography archived one of her walking tours, “The Changing Landscape of New Brunswick,” as part of their 75th anniversary celebration.
Bria retired from teaching and research in May 2017. A long-time resident of Highland Park, NJ, she relocated to Croton-on-Hudson, NY, to spend time with family.
She is greatly missed by the Bloustein School community.
Read more remembrances from colleagues, former students, and friends