Learning While Black (LWB)

Program

“Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have embodied leadership, excellence, and innovation for centuries, continually punching above their weight and producing barrier-breaking graduates in every field imaginable,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. Despite recent increased national attention and investment in HBCUs, these institutions are still woefully under-resourced. To commemorate national HBCU week, Dr. Keisha Brown, Pardee RAND Faculty Leaders Program alum, will explore some facets of her research and experience regarding funding disparities and their impact on HBCUs. Specifically, she will unpack the relationship between funding and prestigious research designations like R1 status, college rankings such as the US News rating system, school infrastructure, and collaboration with non-HBCU institutions and organizations. As HBCUs continue to experience a surge in enrollment, which is projected to increase in light of the recent SCOTUS decision, adequate funding for HBCUs is a critical policy issue. Dr. Brown will offer recommendations for addressing these inequities. This event will be moderated by RAND’s Jessica Paige, Behavioral Scientist.

Featured Speaker

Dr. Keisha A. Brown is an associate professor of history at Tennessee State University in the Department of History, Political Science, Geography, and Africana Studies. She graduated with her bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame, earned her doctorate from the University of Southern California, and was a 2018–2019 postdoctoral fellow at the James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference at Emory University. She was also a participant in the Pardee RAND Faculty Leaders Program in 2022. Dr. Brown’s research into Sino-Black relations examines networks of difference in China used to understand the Black foreign other through an investigation of the social and political context that African Americans and others in the Black diaspora navigate and negotiate in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In 2020, she co-founded the Black China Caucus, a non-profit collaborative aimed at encouraging the professional development and advancement of Black professionals who specialize in China.

Event Co-Sponsor

Black Employees Leading in Inclusion, Equity, Vision and Education (BELIEVE) is one of five Employee Resource Groups at RAND. BELIEVE seeks to create a safe and open space for colleagues who identify as Black, African American, and others from across the African Diaspora, to connect, communicate, celebrate, support, and develop. Our efforts are aimed at fostering an inclusive and supportive workplace, recruiting and retaining Black employees, and countering racial disparities and inequities through education and awareness.