Story by Vanessa Slay (’23)
When Tony Brown (’00) was a child, he dreamed of one day bringing people together for the Olympic games. And while that particular dream has not come true, he has spent years uniting people to address the inequity in education and the barriers that hinder student success.
“My goal now, at this point in my career, is to create the first unifying force in Los Angeles for out-of-school-time providers and then lift that up so that other areas across the country can follow suit and do the same unification,” says Brown.
This is his Olympic stadium.
Brown, who earned a master’s degree in sport management at UT, is the CEO and executive director for Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), a nonprofit with the mission of helping young people overcome barriers through free programs, guidance, and opportunities to explore hobbies and interests.x
HOLA also addresses the educational inequity that exists in many parts of California by placing classes like traditional arts into school and providing them courses after school hours at any of their four centers in Los Angeles or in South Central Los Angeles, in conjunction with Watts Labor Community Action Committee.
“There’s not enough time in the school day for young people to discover what they love,” Brown says. “My hope is to integrate the program, make the school day longer but less of a traditional school day, allow them to develop their hobbies and grow up to be their best selves.”
Brown, who is originally from California, began working for HOLA in 1993 after finishing his undergraduate degree at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. However, he wanted to further explore the idea of sports as a unifier.
So, the Californian jumped at the opportunity to come to East Tennessee to teach and pursue a degree in sport management.
While the transition to Knoxville was a bit of a culture shock, Brown found that UT felt like home and his professors were like family.
“My faculty was phenomenal,” says Brown. “For such a big school, they created a warm and familial setting for me to learn. When I had questions, they always made the time—on and off campus.”
Brown recalls the opportunities he was given at UT to learn leadership. He co-led the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association basketball tournament at Thompson-Boling Arena, utilizing the knowledge he learned in the program to pitch and secure sponsors for the event and run many of the behind-the-scenes operations of the event.
“It’s not just theoretical at UT. I found that at CEHHS, I had a balance of theoretical and practical. A perfect blend,” says Brown, who also serves on the CEHHS Dean’s Board of Advisors.
After finishing his master’s degree, Brown returned to work at HOLA and has been leading the organization since 2003. But he says his time at the university and in CEHHS has continued to shape his decisions and his pathways from educator to sports management and business to leader of a multimillion-dollar nonprofit.
“I’ve raised millions of dollars over my career for young people who otherwise wouldn’t have access to those types of funds, and thousands of thousands of young people have benefited from investment in quality resources, and I was taught the skills to do so and given the opportunity to grow in my leadership through CEHHS.”