Pronouns: He/Him/His
Taj Brown is the Director for Upstream Strategies in the Built for Zero movement at Community Solutions. His team develops cross-sector collaborations to drive reductions and measurably end homelessness at population levels. A lifelong anti-poverty activist, Taj has over 25 years experience in nonprofit management, policy development, community organizing, and direct action. He has an extensive record of building organizational capacity and delivering programs and services through work with the Children’s Defense Fund, Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute, Equity and Inclusion Campaign, US Soccer Foundation, Black Women of Chester County in Action, LEAD InterGenerational Solutions, GlobalHue, and the Conference of National Black Churches among other social justice efforts.
Taj served on the NAACP’s National Board of Directors and was Julian Bond’s appointee to the Executive Committee and Co-Chair of the National Education Committee. He also has been a board member or advisor for multiple organizations including the Belafonte TACOLCY Center in Miami, FL; the Northeast Area Development Corporation in Rochester, NY; One Common Unity in Washington, DC; and ReGender (formerly the National Council for Research on Women), also in DC. He is a member of the NAACP’s National LGBTQIA Task Force, and since 1997 has helped to manage an annual therapeutic summer retreat for children who are impacted by HIV/AIDS, entitled Camp Dreamcatcher.
He is the recipient of honors including the Carter G. Woodson Award presented jointly by the National Education Association and Woodson’s own Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, the Pennsylvania State Education Association’s Human and Civil Service Award, the Iowa Commission on the Status of African Americans’ Community Appreciation Award, and the NAACP’s Roy Wilkins Leadership Award. He holds a BA from Lock Haven University and certificates from the Harvard Business School’s Executive Education Social Enterprise and Nonprofits Program, the International Program of Spanish Culture and Studies at the University of Malaga in Ronda, Spain, and the Practical Project Management Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
- LOVES: NEW IDEAS
- HATES: IMAGINARY ROADBLOCKS
- SUPER POWER: PROVOCATEUR
