Tawanna Brown

Tawanna supports alumni engagement, knowledge management and curriculum development and delivery. She has served in various staff, board and volunteer roles, mainly in the nonprofit, social-capital sector, with experience in program and organizational development, youth and parent engagement, participatory evaluation, grantmaking and capacity building. Prior to AYLF, Tawanna managed the Community Music Grants Program at Memphis Music Initiative and was deputy director of Family Matter Chicago. A graduate of Knox College, she studied literature, creative writing and African American studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. Tawanna is a Chicago native who currently resides in Memphis, Tennessee. She deeply believes in the power of empathy and honorability (shared accountability free of shame), values the wisdom embedded in stories and metaphors, and practices, faithfully, the art of writing love letters.