Khari Brown, G01

Khari Brown joins kids on a team building exercise.

College Bound

Graduate alumnus Khari Brown is steering underprivileged kids to higher education.

It's been a long time since Khari Brown, A94, G01, made his living as a basketball coach. But he relies on what he learned in this role every day as the executive director of Capital Partners for Education, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization.

"Coaching was probably the best education I had for being an executive director," he says. "It helped me to understand how to work with people and inspire them. It taught me how to maneuver in difficult situations, how to think on my feet, and all of the aspects of leadership that I needed to have to be successful."

Before joining Capital Partners in 2001, Khari Brown played professional basketball in Europe. The former Tufts basketball team standout returned to the United States in 1995 and began working as a personal trainer soon after. A year later, Brown embarked on his coaching career, first as an assistant coach for the Tufts basketball team and then as coach of the Medford, Massachusetts high school junior varsity team.

Capital Partners for Education, which was founded in 1993, provides talented low-income high school students with scholarships to attend private college preparatory schools, the opportunity to work closely with volunteer mentors, and academic support in the form of study skills workshops. Students are also eligible for a number of enrichment opportunities, including college planning workshops and Princeton Review SAT preparation classes.

"These are motivated kids who probably wouldn't go to college if they weren't part of our program," says Brown, who earned a master's degree in education from Tufts in 2001. "Of the kids who complete the program, 97 percent of them end up going to college.  We're sending students to college at about three times the rate of some D.C. schools working with a very similar population."

During a typical day, Brown meets with current and potential donors, helps plan and manage fundraising events, interviews prospective employees and oversees the organization's six-person staff, as well as its core of more than 150 volunteers.

And while he's no longer a coach, basketball is still a part of Khari Brown's life.

"I don't have time to coach anymore. I really wish I did," he says. "But I still play basketball in some leagues and I do other sports like weight training, biking, and things like that."

Article by Robert Bochnak, G07, senior writer/communications manager, Office of Graduate Studies

Photo by Melody Ko

This article originally appeared in the fall 2008 edition of Alma Matters, the magazine for Tufts Arts, Sciences, and Engineering graduate alumni.