Sarita Brown was born in New York City and raised in San Antonio, Texas. Her father, a Mexican immigrant, and her mother, were unable to pursue higher education, but they did everything they could to ensure that their daughter attended college, even basing their decision to settle in San Antonio on the quality of the region’s school district.

Brown is the founding president of Excellence in Education, a national nonprofit organization that works to accelerate the success of Latinos in higher education by linking research, policy, and practice to serve Latino students.

A recognized thought leader in higher education, Brown has spent more than two decades at prominent national educational institutions and at the highest levels of government, working to implement effective strategies to increase academic achievement and opportunities for low-income and minority students. She began her career at the University of Texas at Austin building a model national network that promotes minority success in graduate education. Arriving in the nation's capital in 1993 to work for educational associations, she was appointed Executive Director of the White House Initiative for Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans under President Bill Clinton and U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley. Subsequently, she applied her talents and experience to the nonprofit sector, and, in 2004, she co-founded “Excelencia in Education”.

Launched in 2004, “Excelencia” filled a crucial information gap for policymakers, institutional leaders, and the Latino community. The organization has become a trusted source of data and information on the state of Latinos' higher educational achievement, an important resource for influencing policy at the state and national levels, and a widely recognized advocate for expanding promising practices to accelerate Latino students' success in college. As president, Ms. Brown presents an asset-based perspective on the growth of the Latino community and advises educators, funders, and civic leaders. She consults with national educational organizations and currently serves on the Board of Directors of ACT Inc., Editorial Projects in Education, Catch the Next Board, and Excelencia in Education.

An effective advocate for Latino success in higher education, Sarita Brown travels across the country speaking about the potential benefits to the country of increasing Latino students' success in higher education. Her writings on the impact on Latino college talents include her chapter; "Making the Next Generation Our Greatest Resource" in "Latinos in the Nation's Future" (2009) edited by Henry Cisneros and published by Arte Pública Press.

Brown was honored with the Harold G. McGraw Jr. Award for Education for her “innovative thinking, strong leadership, and achievement by example”. She has been recognized with numerous awards, including an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from North Carolina State University and an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in Behavioral Sciences from Carlos Albizu University. She holds a bachelor's degree in ethnic studies, a bachelor's degree in science, and a master's degree in communication from the University of Texas at Austin.

Source: https://www.naaonline.org/sarita_brown