Joy Marie Brazelle

We are sad to announce the recent death of Joy (Dowling) Brazelle, age 55, who passed away in Atlanta, Georgia of natural causes. Joy was born in Boston, Massachusetts on August 22, 1967 to Milo Dowling and Elaine Finnegan and was the second born of four sisters.

Joy attended school in Greenwich, Connecticut before studying accounting at Bentley University. She later moved to Atlanta, where she met her husband, musician and radio personality Mason Brazelle. Joy and Mason subsequently lived in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and Columbus, Ohio. A self-taught data analytics expert, Joy traveled extensively, working in high profile positions for global companies including IBM and Klarna. In recent years, Joy founded AnalyticGirl.com and split her time between independent consulting and translating information about data privacy, User ID, Chat GPT and other technical topics into short, accessible blog posts. (Check out her website if you don't believe this is possible!)

Known for her radiant beauty, cheerful demeanor and biting sense of humor, Joy loved music, computers, and dogs. She enjoyed yoga but joked that she practiced for more than two years with no improvement. Her kindness of self and spirit consistently inspired her to provide help to others, whether by giving food, clothes, and comfort to the homeless; providing free computer advice to colleagues and friends; or adopting rescue dogs. Joy never lost her sense of wonder with technology and this passion made her an effective trainer and teacher. Her profound love for her most recently rescued dog, Mikey, equalled the affection that she lavished as a dog-mom upon Cash, Simon, and Tripper.

Though slight in stature, Joy's passing leaves a huge hole in the world and in the many lives that she touched. Joy was preceded in death by her mother Elaine Finnegan and by her husband Mason, who she married in 1993 and with whom she shared a profound love of music. She is survived by her father, Milo Dowling, her stepmother, Sue Dowling, and her sisters Jill, Jennifer, and Finn.

Until such time as memorial celebrations are announced, we ask you to keep Joy in your thoughts and prayers and to treat others as she would - with kindness and generosity. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you honor Joy's memory and enable a future AnalyticGirl with contributions to High Tech High Heels, a non-profit that empowers young women to pursue the STEM field of their choice (https://hightechhighheels.org/donate-now/), or to Lifeline Animal Project (https://lifelineanimal.org/donate-today/).