Activist Kyra Brown

Kyra Brown was raised in East Palo Alto, California, the heart of Silicon Valley.  She is a graduate from Menlo-Atherton High School and is an alumna of College Track, a program for first-generation college students.  Kyra has a demonstrated commitment to serving the community of East Palo Alto.  She is currently living out her dream of becoming a (local) High School English teacher, determined to be the kind of teacher she needed when she was younger.  She teaches her students to use literature as a tool for understanding history, for inspiring them to shape their own personal story and for activating civic engagement where they see it necessary.

Kyra earned a BA in English Literature, with a minor in Theology from Bethany University, Santa Cruz.  While at Bethany, she served on the Student Government as the Intercultural Representative and led the Student Petition for Diversity Initiatives.  She earned a Master’s of Divinity degree with an emphasis in Social Justice from Howard University, Washington DC. While at Howard, she served as a Graduate Research Assistant for Dr. Cain Hope Felder as well as the Student Government Vice President. Under her leadership, the Divinity Student Government Association was named one of Howard University’s Organizations of the Year.  After college and before becoming a teacher,  Kyra wrote “An Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg,” which went viral.  As a result, she and local coalition partners facilitated a $20M Affordable Housing Fund with Facebook (now Meta) in order to mitigate the negative effects of big tech’s expansion (and subsequent gentrification) on her local community of color.