Today we’d like to introduce you to Asha Brown.
Hi Asha, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I believe everyone deserves to be heard. When I lived in a small, impoverished community in Jamaica, my sister and I thought we were the only young girls there. Then I learned that the other girls were not allowed outside their homes or allowed to go to school, and had no chance to talk to someone who could help them. They were the most unprotected people in that community, and the children around them did not have what they needed to build a good life, because corruption had instilled itself into their lives. I will never forget that, which is why I am a voice for people who cannot speak for themselves, and I am committed to helping people heal how they see their own worth and the stories they have been told about who they are.
This belief extends far beyond a single community. It is about human rights everywhere, and about a clean, green planet where everyone can thrive. Connection and community are essential to all of it. A society cannot move forward until its people connect with each other and bridge the animosity that divides them. This is why I studied Peace and Conflict Studies and International Studies at the University of Utah and spent a summer in Grenoble, France, studying French language and literature. So that I can use what I gained from my education and what I learned about the world around me to create a way to make a positive change in every situation that someone might be going through, from a small community to a global level.
Art is one way, I believe, we can do this work. I am a content creator with a deep love of fashion, modeling, music, singing, and dancing. I create constantly because I believe art is how communities heal and how their stories and experiences are lifted up and truly seen.
I have been able to grow and create this truth in many places. I served as Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Alpha Chi Omega and worked with Camping In Color! and The IMPACT Magazine. I also volunteer at the Pro Bono Clinic at the S.J. Quinney College of Law, where I help clients and support attorneys with legal research.
Today, I am the Marketing and Volunteer Coordinator at YWCA Utah. I am preparing for law school and am so excited for my future, supporting and constantly learning about the cultures, people, and communities. I will do my work in communities that have been overlooked, underserved, and cut off from support, learning their stories and standing beside them. Whether I am on a stage, in front of a camera, or in a courtroom, I am creating a space where I can be an advocate, use my voice to lift others up, and build a world where everyone’s rights are protected and respected. In a place where people can feel the security, peace, and love that they deserve.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No, it has not been a smooth road. I did not grow up in a stable household, so I had to learn very young how to take care of myself. I built my own community. They were the people who helped me get through school, stand on my own two feet, and supported me mentally and emotionally. I also learned to care for my mind and my spirit, and I worked on that while earning my degree. It changed what I wanted to do with my education. There were so many times I wanted to quit because almost everything I was doing was difficult, but I kept going.
With everything going on in the world right now, I see how much work we still have to do in our own communities, and I am ready to do it. What happens in one community spreads like a wave, so if we do not address what is happening here, it will reach everyone, and a country with our power has a responsibility to do better. What got me through is the same thing I believe will carry all of us, and that is community. I am so thankful for the people who showed up for me, because I would not be here without them, and showing up for others is my purpose.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My work sits where advocacy, research, and art meet. I am the Marketing and Volunteer Coordinator at YWCA Utah, where I am building our volunteer program with creativity at the center. My goal is to add another layer of connection across the organization by bringing more of the community into our mission. YWCA Utah is a large organization with many programs, and I am creating a volunteer experience that runs through all of them, so that volunteerism becomes another thread connecting our work and the people we serve. I am also on the team at Camping In Color!, where I help create the organization’s events. I have volunteered more than 60 hours at the Pro Bono Clinic at the S.J. Quinney College of Law, and I am preparing for law school.
I am also a content creator and a photographer. I love to travel to places and hear the stories of people’s lives and experiences, the stories that so often go unheard because no one takes the time to sit with them. Photography is how I share the world as I see it, and how I honor those stories.
I am known as the person people turn to for support. When someone is planning an event or building an organization, they come to me because they know I will show up and do whatever it takes to help it succeed. People also seek me out for advice, and I take that trust seriously because helping people is why I do everything I do.
What I am most proud of is my senior honors thesis, Educated and Unequal, which examines the gender wage gap in Jamaica. Jamaica was the first country I visited outside the United States, and it changed the way I see the world and myself. Women there out-educate men at every level, yet they are paid less, promoted less, and kept out of leadership, especially in government. My research shows that education alone does not close that gap. The barriers are structural, and they include job segregation, the glass ceiling, and the unpaid work that women are expected to carry.
That is what sets me apart. I do not separate the creative from the serious, and I do not separate the research from the people. I believe a gap built into a system can only be healed by changing the system, and communities heal when their stories are told. I am excited to keep creating new things, new programs, new art, and new ways to bring people together, and I cannot wait to see what comes next.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Something people might not know about me is that books gravitate into my home. I do not know how it happens, but they keep finding their way in, and now they have taken over my house in stacks and piles and claimed half of my closet. I need a library immediately. I am also fascinated by the engineering behind sports cars and motorcycles, and I love understanding how they are built. Building things has always been a part of who I am. Once I learn the math, I plan to become an architect.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theashabrown/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashabrownofficial/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asha-brown-323bba230
