It's fitting that Olubunmi “Bunmi” Akinnusotu's favorite sport has always been volleyball — a contest defined by sets and passes and connections among teammates so in tune that they work as one. From aiding in outreach efforts during the Flint water crisis as a member of the Obama Administration to her current role as Director of City Innovation at the Aspen Institute, an international nonprofit organization that works to solve global problems, Akinnusotu, a member of Bryant University’s class of 2003, has spent her career forging relationships — and using those relationships to aid others.

Perhaps then it is no surprise that so much of her recent return to Bryant as an Executive in Residence centered around the powerful connections she forged here as a student.. From the classroom to the Intercultural Center to the gymnasium, nearly every stop she made during her September visit was marked with hugs as she reconnected with figures from her past.

But those reunions were second to her central mission. As part of the university’s Executive in Residence program, which provides a platform for industry executives and leaders to share their expertise, Akinnusotu offered anecdotes, advice, and inspiration to the university’s students to propel them to do great things of their own.

Akinnusotu’s first order of business for the day was a visit to Professor of Sociology and Sports Studies Coordinator Judith McDonnell’s “The Sociological Imagination: What We See When We Watch T.V.” course, which considers the relationship between social structures, culture,  and agency — topics that Akinnusotu deals with every day in her work — through the lens of the HBO series “The Wire.”

She started the class by sharing a hug with McDonnell and, after a brief introduction, noted to the students their friendship had lasted more than two decades, ever since Akinnusotu had her as her own professor.

“Appreciate the gift you have in this woman,” she advised.

The Executive in Residence then shared her own story. A first-generation college student whose parents were from Nigeria and a talented volleyball player who would go on to be enshrined in the Bryant Athletics Hall of Fame, Akinnusotu explained how she had been recruited to Bryant by Theresa and Ted Garlacy, the coach and assistant volleyball coach at the university, whom she met when they officiated her high school volleyball games. “They opened up my aperture of what’s possible,” she noted — and became invaluable mentors in the process.

It was at Bryant that Akinnusotu took her first minority literature course. “I read Amiri Baraka for the first time, which changed my life; I read Gwendolyn Brooks; and I, of course, read James Baldwin,” she recalled. “My professor — this little, white, red-haired lady — introduced me to all of these people and I was, like, ‘Oh my God.’ I felt like I had been duped my whole life.”

That awakening, coupled with the technical and organizational skills she learned at Bryant, Akinnusotu told the class, provided her with a launching point to make a difference in the lives of others, from working in the Office of Land and Emergency Management to her current position, where she leads efforts to engage urban policymakers and innovators from around the world. She took the class with her on an international journey as she described her travels from Mexico City to East Timor.

“I think that, in life, we put up these dualities: something has to be ‘this’ or ‘that.’ It doesn’t have to be that way; we just need to think bigger.”

The lesson of her rich and varied career, she advised the class, was to always be open to new possibilities. “Don’t be afraid to look for opportunity in unexpected places,” she said.

Management major Beau Shugharts ’25 was engrossed by the discussion and asked several questions during the session. “She’s done so much, and it all started here when she was a Bryant student,” he noted. “That’s pretty inspiring.”

When the class concluded, Akinnusotu had lunch with university officials before leading a conversation with female students of diverse backgrounds in Bryant’s Intercultural Center (ICC). Before her talk began, she took a moment to find her name on the ICC’s “Wall of Fame” plaque as well as the names of many of her friends from Bryant. She also had a happy reunion with Kauro Panganelli, assistant director of Bryant’s Office of International Students and Scholars, who had been the Center’s secretary when Akinnusotu was there as a student.

The discussion was informal but in-depth and, at times, deeply personal. The topics ranged from Akinnusoto’s own successes and struggles as a Bryant student to the lessons she’d learned over the course of her career.

They also discussed what it meant to find your own path. When one of the students expressed that she was torn between academic and career options, Akinnusotu, drawing from her own experience, suggested that she attempt to find ways to combine her passions.

“I think that, in life, we put up these dualities: something has to be ‘this’ or ‘that.’ It doesn’t have to be that way; we just need to think bigger,” she advised.

If she could pass on one simple lesson, she suggested, it would be this: Be proud of who you are and to be fearless in your ambitions. “Don't ever dim your fire,” she implored.

The day concluded where it all began for Akinnusotu: with volleyball. When she stopped by a practice to speak with the athletes, the team was visibly impressed as Teresa Garlacy rattled off her long list of athletic accomplishments.

“But most impressive is what she’s done since,” Garlacy concluded.

Akinnusotu noted that she felt a special bond with the team — a bond between teammates across generations — and the meet-up was marked with laughter and joy, as if they were old friends. “The beauty of Bryant is the relationships you make here,” she told the students. “And I hope that never changes.”