One Conversation at a Time: Remembering Georgia Persons

Posted July 21, 2026

During the early years of the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy, it was common to find Georgia Persons and a couple of colleagues sitting on a bench outside D.M. Smith, chatting.   

“We would talk, not just about public policy, but about life,” said Cheryl Leggon, a retired associate professor in the Carter School.

According to those who knew her well, those small exchanges outside D.M. Smith reflected the way Persons, a professor in the Carter School, moved through the world. She built friendships and drew whole organizations together, one conversation at a time. Over more than 30 years, those connections became the bedrock of her remarkable career and legacy. 

Following her passing in July, her colleagues and friends reflected on the lasting impact of those relationships.

Building Communities

“Georgia was committed to bringing together scholars in her field,” said Willie Pearson Jr., a retired Regents’ Professor in the School of History and Sociology. 

She specialized in connecting policy and political science scholars to make a positive difference in the lives of others. Persons played an active role in founding the National Conference of Black Political Scientists and edited the National Political Science Review, the Conference’s refereed scholarly journal, for ten years — an unusual distinction in scholarship and service.

Persons’ talent for bringing people together also extended beyond colleagues in her discipline. She served all of Georgia Tech’s faculty as an ADVANCE Professor and was active in the Atlanta University Center Consortium, which promotes collaboration and public service among its historically Black colleges and universities member institutions.

“As one of the Carter School’s founding faculty members, Georgia encouraged others to engage with contemporary social policy issues and with the larger community,” said Aaron Levine, interim chair of the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy. “The School wouldn’t be where it is today without her.”

Widening the Doors

Persons’ talent for building communities and supporting others began during her undergraduate years at Southern University in Louisiana, where she studied under eminent scholar Jewel Limar Prestage, the first Black woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in political science. Throughout her career, Persons followed her mentor’s example, encouraging those who were pursuing academic paths in political science and other fields.

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in political science at Southern, Persons earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, specializing in American government and politics, urban politics and policy, and political development.

“She earned her Ph.D. at MIT at a time when there were far too few African Americans — and even fewer African American women — pursuing graduate work in such spaces. That achievement alone speaks to her determination, discipline, and exceptional capacity,” said Kaye Husbands Fealing, a professor in the Carter School and former dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

“But Georgia did not simply enter those rooms; she helped widen the doors for others,” she added.

As a teacher and mentor, Persons changed lives. 

“Your laid-back yet academically enriching teaching style is unique among the faculty, motivating me to take any course in which your name is associated,” Husbands Fealing quoted one of her students as saying. “It is under [your] insights that I am inspired to pursue a career in Public Policy.”

Persons was also known for weaving personal experience into her teaching and research in ways that students found meaningful and inspiring. 

“Georgia did more than teach courses. She opened intellectual pathways. She helped students see history more clearly, policy more critically, and their own futures more expansively,” said Husbands Fealing.

Scholarship with Human Consequence

At Georgia Tech, Persons published widely on African American politics, American national government, national institutional processes, health policy, and health disparities. She was awarded the highly competitive Ford Foundation Fellowship and was named an American Political Science Association Fellow. 

“Georgia had a gift for looking honestly at history — not as a fixed account of the past, but as a living record of struggle, resilience, exclusion, and possibility,” said Husbands Fealing.

Recently, Persons conducted research on health policy and healthcare safety nets. She was also consulting for the Fulton-Dekalb Hospital Authority. Her work focused not only on the problems with the healthcare system, but also on its potential and possible futures. 

“Georgia’s scholarship mattered because it was never detached from human consequence,” said Husbands Fealing. “She studied institutions not as abstractions, but as forces that shape opportunity, dignity, health, leadership, and democratic belonging.”

An Enduring Legacy

Across her decades at Georgia Tech, the qualities colleagues remember the most about Georgia Persons are the same ones reflected in those conversations outside D.M. Smith: her warmth, generosity, and remarkable ability to bring people together.

Associate Professor Hans Klein recalled that in his first semester at Georgia Tech, Persons saw him in the hallway and joked that she thought he was one of the undergraduates. They laughed, and that good-humored warmth remained a hallmark of their relationship. (As recalled to Kaye Husbands Fealing.)

“I had the privilege of knowing and working with her for many years and have many memories of our long association. Georgia was a unique colleague, and will be greatly missed,” said Professor Philip Shapira.

“Generations of students and faculty benefited from her wisdom and experience,” said Dean’s Distinguished Professor Mary Frank Fox. “I will miss Georgia — ever, always.”