The Face of Leadership: Stefanie L. Brown

At twenty-nine years of age, Stefanie Louise Brown has dedicated her life to empowering people of color to organize and advocate for justice and equality in their communities. A native of Bedford Heights, Ohio, Stefanie currently serves as the National Field Director for the NAACP in Baltimore, Maryland. In this position, Stefanie is charged with developing and administering the national field organizing strategy for the NAACP’s 2,200 adult branches and youth units in 48 states and the District of Columbia. Concurrently, Stefanie serves as the National Director of the NAACP Youth & College Division representing 23,000 young people under the age of 25.

Formerly the National Outreach Coordinator for Global Justice, Inc. in Washington, DC, Stefanie created the organization’s Black Student Justice Network; a national student network to prompt youth engagement in informed advocacy, both domestic and international, around equity related policy issues pertinent to the Black community. Prior to joining Global Justice, Stefanie worked as the Program Coordinator of the Stopping AIDS is My Mission Program (SAMM); an HIV/STD prevention education program targeting high school aged African American and Latino youth in juvenile detention facilities and Job Corps Centers in Cleveland, Ohio.

Graduating from Howard University in 2004, Stefanie is the founder of the Harvey & Delores Brown Scholarship Fund and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. She currently serves on National Steering Committees and/or National Boards for Generational Alliance, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Katrina Information Network and New Light Leadership Coalition.

Stefanie has been recognized as one of Essence.com’s “Top 10 Emerging Political Leaders of 2010”; Howard University School of Business “Young Business Leaders Award 2010”; Ebony Magazine’s 2007 “Top 30 Young Leaders under the Age of 30” and was awarded the 2007 Lamplighter Award for Public Service by the Black Leadership Forum.

About the Author

Kristal High

Kristal Lauren High co-founded and serves as Editor in Chief of Politic365, a multi-media publication focused exclusively on politics and public policy from a multicultural point of view. Prior to launching Politic365, Ms. High developed an expertise in broadband adoption among minority, low-income and underserved populations through her work with the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies’ Media & Technology Institute. A former Advisory Board Member of Blogging While Brown, the premier blogging conference dedicated to education, collaboration, and innovation among bloggers of color, Ms. High co-founded and chaired Innovation Generation, a non-partisan coalition of entrepreneurs, political leaders, technologists, academics and members of the new media to mobilize leadership around the transformative power of broadband and its ability to change lives. Ms. High also founded the blog Pocketbook Protest to address the importance of minorities leveraging their economic power to achieve their desired political and social ends, and has been a guest speaker at Netroots Nation, Geek.Me and NewME. For her efforts online in advocacy and web publishing, Ms. High received the 2012 Digital Renaissance Award from the New York Urban League Young Professionals, the NAACP’s Leadership 500 Chairman’s Leadership Award, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Black Broadcasters Association. Ms. High obtained her Bachelor of Arts cum laude from Davidson College, where she was inducted into the leadership fraternity Omicron Delta Kappa. While at Davidson, she majored in Theatre with a concentration in African American Studies. Ms. High received her Juris Doctor from Washington and Lee School of Law, where she specialized in civil and international human rights, and media and entertainment law.