Current School Board President, Ka’Dijah A. Brown is a teacher, leader and visionary. Ka’Dijah’s passion for people has started her on a journey to be a part of organizations and activities that empower communities of color and improve equitable outcomes. In the early years of her political career Ka’Dijah severed as President of the Youth Commission for the City of Berkeley, a Congressional Intern for Congresswoman Barbara Lee, an intern for Mayor Ronald V. Dellums, and an intern for Counilmember Max Anderson.
In 2018, Ka’Dijah was elected as a School Board Director for the Berkeley Unified School District Board of Education. Her grassroots campaign ignited support across the city of Berkeley from students, educators, parents, and community leaders. Currently, Ka’Dijah serves as the President of the Board of Education working to improve equitable outcomes for students. Ka’Dijah is the youngest person, and first teacher ever elected to this office. In her time on the board, she has helped to create and pass a Black Lives Matter resolution, which affirms, supports, uplifts and celebrates the lives of black students as well as commits to renaming schools that bear the names of enslavers. Together with her board colleagues, district and city partners, BUSD weathered the challenges of the pandemic by closing the digital divide and implementing new systems to bring the district into the 21st century. While on the board Ka'Dijah has supported the adoption of a boundary policy to combat sexual harassment and provided expanded funding for peer-to-peer education. Under her leadership, BUSD passed it's first climate resolution that ensures that all students graduate from BUSD climate literate. She supported the approved framework for BUSD's African-American Success Initiative and priorities within the District's Latinx resolution. Additionally, Ka’Dijah takes her fiduciary role seriously and is dedicated to the fiscal stability of the District. In her time on the board, Ka’Dijah has helped to approve three local tax measures that led to increases in teacher salary, ongoing support for school maintenance, and new school construction. Ka'Dijah has also helped her school district successfully manage the single largest budget reduction since the Great Recession, with no reductions in staff positions or cuts to the classroom. Finally, Ka’Dijah helped the district successfully navigate through the pandemic, with BUSD being nationally recognized as having a “gold standard” approach to testing and contract tracing.
Ka’Dijah is a devoted 6th grade teacher who has dedicated her career to serving students and families in underserved communities. In her past work as a Black and African-American Student Achievement coordinator, Ka'Dijah's focus on culturally responsive pedagogy ignited student engagement and achievement throughout her school and provided educators with the roadmap to be successful. Under her leadership, her school increased the number of Black/African American students meeting or exceeding the standard on the SBAC, increased the cumulative GPA of Black/African American students, decreased the number of suspensions of Black/African American students, and increased reported feelings of inclusion and participation rates of Black/African American families.
Ka’Dijah is a proud member of Black Women Organized for Political Action and currently serves as the 2nd Vice President for the Oakland/Berkeley chapter of BWOPA