Brian Brown is a proud first-generation college graduate and a product of UC Berkeley’s Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP), which first reached him as a student at Castlemont High School in East Oakland. That experience sparked a lifelong commitment to educational equity and access—one that would take him across continents and eventually lead him back to serve the very communities that shaped him.
Brian earned his BA in Sociology from UC Berkeley and his MA in Counseling and Guidance from San José State University. His early career took root abroad, where he spent nearly a decade teaching English at language centers and serving on the teaching faculty at an international high school in Shanghai, China, and later working at a private education consulting firm in Seoul, South Korea. He has a deep appreciation for food and culture, having traveled extensively throughout East and Southeast Asia.
Upon returning to the Bay Area, Brian worked as an independent consultant supporting international students, and then spent five years as the College and Career Adviser at Mount Diablo High School. Today, he is the Assistant Director with DCAC and EAOP, leading college access and advising efforts across Southern Alameda. Brian’s educational philosophy is rooted in access, relationship-building, and student agency. He believes that transformative advising meets students where they are, affirms their lived experiences, and equips them to navigate systems with confidence, clarity, and purpose.