Akeem Brown

Superintendent of Essence Preparatory Public School

Over the past several years, Akeem Brown (he/him/his) has dedicated his career to serving students living in San Antonio’s Eastside, a diverse, multilingual area that has experienced significant neglect and increased poverty. By founding a school, he seeks to provide his students with the pathways to opportunity he feels are lacking in many areas of the city school will utilize a project-based learning model that focuses on public policy. Essence Preparatory Public School, authorized by the Texas Education Agency June 2021, is a high-quality learning environment where students grapple with real-world issues and develop the skills necessary to be effective agents of change. The school has adopted community-building traditions like morning circle meetings and weekly family gatherings and utilizes “Essence Vitals” a curriculum to teach social and emotional learning skills. “Our school should be an environment where children learn the skills that they need to advocate for themselves and the needs of their communities after graduation.”

Akeem began his career in education as a social studies teacher in Brooklyn, NY. He has since managed programming and communications for the City of San Antonio’s Office of EastPoint and served as the director of operations and interim CEO of San Antonio Growth on the Eastside, where he supported STEM instruction in the San Antonio Independent School District and oversaw a $23.7 million Promise Neighborhood grant. He has also served as director of communications and policy for San Antonio’s City Council District 2. Most recently, Akeem was a 2020 BES Fellow. Akeem holds a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from South Carolina State University and a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership from Our Lady of the Lake University.