The Los Angeles Lakers announced Thursday the hiring of UCLA African American studies and sociology professor Karida Brown as their director of Racial Equity & Action.
Brown will create a curriculum to help the Lakers staff enrich their knowledge on today's most urgent topics and help identify ways the team can be more active and efficient in creating change, according to Tim Harris, the Lakers COO & president of business operations.
Brown is a tenure-track assistant professor in the departments of African American studies and sociology. She earned her doctorate in sociology from Brown University in 2016 and a master's degree in government administration from the University of Pennsylvania in 2011.
Brown serves on the boards of The Obama Presidency Oral History Project and Du Boisian Scholar Network.
Brown has been recognized for her writing about the lives, stories and experiences of Blacks around the world. She is the author of two books, "Gone Home: Race and Roots through Appalachia" and "The Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois: Racialized Modernity and the Global Color Line" which she co-authored with Jos Itzigsohn.
Brown is working on her third book, "Separate and Unequal," about the history of racially segregated education systems and their enduring legacies on racial inequality in present-day education.
"We are very happy to have Dr. Brown join the team," Harris said. "She will play a key role in implementing educational programming on race and racism for our employees and helping us focus on racial equity in our day-to- day functions, as well as empowering the organization to identify ways to be more active participants in affecting real change."
