Why Jussara Barbosa Does Everything Wholeheartedly

Northeastern graduate (‘25) Jussara Barbosa’s first assignment as a Student Ambassador in the Office of the Dean was to compile information from all of Northeastern’s programs into an Excel spreadsheet. Dean Caroline Simard estimated it would take about a week; Barbosa finished in just two days.

She then took on writing profiles of faculty and staff members — a project she completed just as efficiently — and returned to the dean. “Give me more stuff to do!” she said.

That’s when Simard got her to help with event planning — which, as it turned out, was Barbosa’s area of expertise.

A decade of event planning

Before moving to the US to join her boyfriend (now husband), who was then a PhD student at the University of Illinois, Barbosa spent ten years working in the events industry. Seven of them were at the Brazilian Institute of Corporate Governance, where she organized forty professional development programs a year — from courses and workshops to forums and conferences — and managed a budget of roughly one million Brazilian reais.

The move to the US was strategic. She saw it as a step toward working with events globally — which also meant improving her English and expanding her skills. During her time there (which coincided with the pandemic), she took English classes, built a digital marketing business from scratch, and explored higher-education options. “I was looking into doing an MBA or a master’s in marketing,” she said. 

Then her husband accepted a job in Silicon Valley, and a new possibility emerged. “It just hit me one day: ‘I have to go to Northeastern and study project management,’” she said. 

Building a network through launching initiatives

Things fell quickly into place after that. On her first day at Northeastern, Barbosa realized her classmate Preeti Jain also took the train to campus and the two became friends. During their commutes, which happened two or three times a week, they discussed coursework and brainstormed ideas for the Northeastern University Project Management (NUPM) club, where Jain later became president and Barbosa vice president.

Through the NUPM club, the pair organized talks for project management students on topics such as AI, servant leadership, and developing soft and hard skills. 

These were smaller, lower-stake events than Barbosa was used to. “Organizing them was easy compared to the high-profile events I produced for C-level executives back in Brazil,” she said.  

Back in her element

So when Simard asked her to help plan two high-profile events — Remarkable Women in AI (RWIAI), an AI conference on the Seattle campus, and Leading in the Age of AI, which brought twenty women leaders from Europe to Silicon Valley to learn about AI trends — Barbosa was thrilled.  

For the RWIAI event, organized in partnership with Amazon, Articulate, and Transatlantic AI eXchange, she handled operational coordination, documentation and follow-up. She also attended all the board member meetings, taking notes and sharing ideas with tech company leaders.

For the Leading in the Age of AI program, organized in partnership with the Women Initiative Foundation, she led project planning, coordinated vendor quotes, and designed the first iteration of the event brochure. 

The events gave her a chance to combine her event management experience with the strategic perspective she gained from her master’s, which she fully committed to. “I only missed two classes when I went to Brazil. I handed in all my assignments, took initiative in class, and went to as many campus events as I could.” 

With Dean Caroline Simard (third from left), friend Preeti Jain (second from right) and others from the campus

Learning by doing

Northeastern’s infrastructure, on-campus opportunities, culturally diverse student body, and receptive faculty and staff helped her grow as a student and leader. “It made me want to go after things more,” she said.

But what made the biggest difference was experiential learning. By developing projects — complete with scope, budget, timeline, and action plan — for real-world partners, Barbosa and her classmates gained valuable experience and consolidated their skills. “We really learned by doing,” she said.

After graduating in May 2025, Barbosa has joined the Marketing and Communication Team at the American Marketing Association in San Francisco, where she continues to strive for efficiency and continuous improvement. “If I give my best today, then I can be even better tomorrow,” she said.