A native New Yorker, born and raised in Harlem, Carole discovered some missing links in her life.  In conversations with her friends up on “tar beach” when she was only 12 years old, she’d affirmatively tell them she was going to move to California. Those missing links were to get out of New York, get an education by attending UCLA, and to ultimately work in a profession helping others. These dreams, hatched on the roof of a sprawling apartment building on Convent Avenue, were finally realized. The same persistence that Carole Brown applied in reaching her own dreams is what she wants to inspire in others.

Carole is a forerunner in the movement for women’s equity in the workforce.  In 1984, she founded and directed a community-based organization, the Women’s Employment Resources Corporation (WERC) where she established the Family Stability Project. This project mentored single parent families and their children.  Clients were provided with support services including career development, personal counseling, employment counseling and direct job placement. Carole is very passionate about those clients she helps: unemployed men, women and youth. She enjoys providing them with the “hook-up” to solve their self-identified problems; and is propelled by her personal belief that “parents are the primary role model for their children…therefore, if parents are strengthened in reaching their goals, then a blueprint is formed upon which children can emulate a life-long pattern of success.”

Carole holds an MSW in Social Welfare Administration from the University of California at Berkeley, and a B.A. in Sociology from UCLA.