My Writing | Ahmmad Brown

Selected Works

My writing explores how institutions navigate disagreement, inequality, and pluralism while sustaining shared purpose.

Please also visit the Resources page for research-based and practice-oriented briefs on advancing equity and inclusion, and my Media page to explore conversations and discussions about my work.

Education

BA, Sociology + Anthropology and Japanese, Swarthmore College

MA, Education, Stanford University

MBA, Stanford University

PhD, Organizational Behavior (Sociology Track), Harvard University

Tufts University

Working IDEAL

Research + Teaching Statement

Curriculum Vitae

Practitioner-focused Work

Holding the Tension is a five-part series in Stanford Social Innovation Review, presented by the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University, examining disagreement as a civic and organizational capacity. I worked with the editorial team at Stanford Social Innovation Review to develop and curate the series, bringing together scholars and practitioners to explore how institutions can engage disagreement productively while maintaining legitimacy and shared purpose. The series examines disagreement from multiple organizational perspectives, including institutional governance, compliance and accountability systems, organizational coherence, cultural context, and leadership practice. Across the five articles, contributors argue that durable equity and institutional legitimacy depend not on suppressing disagreement, but on developing the structures, systems, and leadership capacities required to engage it with clarity and discipline. Together, the series explores how institutions can build the relational and structural capacity to engage disagreement while sustaining shared purpose in complex and pluralistic environments.

I co-authored two articles in the series:

Brown, Ahmmad, Molly Routt, and Dustin Liu.

When Conflict Reveals the Work
Stanford Social Innovation Review (2026)
This article examines how misalignment and incongruence can undermine diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts even when organizations share broad agreement on values. The article introduces a framework for understanding how strategy, structure, and culture must align to sustain durable equity work. I also developed a companion resource that elaborates on the alignment and congruence concepts and their roots in organizational theory.

Brown, Ahmmad, Danielle Loevy, and Robert Corbett
Teaching Disagreement Is Leadership Work
Stanford Social Innovation Review (2026)
This piece outlines four disciplines leaders can use to navigate and teach disagreement inside organizations. The article argues that engaging in constructive disagreement is not merely a communication skill but a core leadership responsibility essential to sustaining relationships, community, and ongoing collective work.

Brown, Ahmmad, and Pamela Coukos

Organizational Justice: A Path Forward for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Work

Stanford Social Innovation Review (2025)

This piece offers a grounded framework for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in organizations amid rising political and institutional backlash. Drawing on the concept of organizational justice, we argue that fairness in structures, processes, and treatment should anchor sustainable equity and inclusion efforts. We show how context-specific strategies, transparency, and institutional legitimacy can help leaders and practitioners maintain impact, even in challenging environments.

You can also listen to Pam Coukos, CEO and Co-founder of Working IDEAL, and I discuss the article and how the organizational justice framework provides grounded and forward-looking framework for building more resilient and just workplaces.

Scholarly Publications & Teaching Materials

Cechony, Anna, and Ahmmad Brown

Addressing Structural, Social, and Symbolic Exclusion of Disabled People

Journal of Applied Social Science (2025)

This piece examines how senior leaders at U.S. colleges and universities perceive the experiences of disabled students on their campuses. Through in-depth interviews, we found that most leaders focused on physical or structural access, such as ramps or accommodations, while paying much less attention to the social and cultural barriers that shape students' everyday experiences. We offer a practical framework for recognizing different types of exclusion and share concrete ways leaders can foster real inclusion. This includes not only improving access but also shifting campus culture and decision-making practices, especially in a time when diversity and inclusion efforts face growing public scrutiny. Full text available upon request.

Also see Anna Cechony's and my resource document (PDF) for applying key insights from this paper in organizations.

Brown, Ahmmad, and Ty-Juana L. Flores

"Both-And" Support for Black Students: Belonging and Cross-Racial Interaction through Race-Specific Programming

Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice (2025): 62(2), 173-185.

Studies show that students at mostly White colleges often stick to their own racial groups, with Black students in particular having fewer interactions across racial lines. To help improve this, we analyzed the Black Scholars Initiative (BSI) at the Berklee College of Music, a program designed to foster positive cross-racial interactions and a sense of belonging. The study found that programs like BSI can help Black students feel connected to their peers and the whole campus, which helps them grow and succeed. Full text available upon request.

Ninh, Amie, and Ahmmad Brown

A Leader's Choice: DEI Paradigms and the Consequences of Misalignment.

Organization Development Review 56.4 (2024): 61-70

The field of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) operates under different ways of thinking, or paradigms. This paper identifies four DEI paradigms in research and, through interviews with 16 tech industry DEI leaders, examines how they apply these in practice. While DEI leaders can integrate multiple approaches, their organizations often lack the same flexibility and understanding. This misalignment creates challenges in setting expectations and executing DEI efforts. The paper also discusses what this means for DEI leaders and organizations moving forward, highlighting the impact of these gaps on DEI work.

Brown, Ahmmad and Ritu Tripathi

Global Firm and Local Labor: Delivering Paid Parental Leave*

William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan (2024)

A teaching case on the challenge of implementing an equitable parental leave policy in a global industrial firm. It follows TriBrown—operating in 70+ countries with growing international revenues—as it seeks to align its diversity, equity, and inclusion goals with its people strategy. Centered on Maya Marshall, VP of DEI, the case highlights data analysis, stakeholder negotiations, and cross‐country differences in law and culture. This case focuses on the ability to diagnose, design, and implement policies that must balance global scale, local variation, and equity in practice.

*First Place Winner; 2024 William Davidson Institute DEI Global Case Writing Competition

Collaborative Reports & Guides

Brown, Ahmmad. Andrea Polanco, Allison Troy, Andie Thompkins
From Performative to Transformative: Navigating Equity & Inclusion Across a Diverse Animal Advocacy Movement

Faunalytics (2025)

This report offers a practical guide for farmed animal advocacy organizations and leaders, with broader relevance for social sector organizations seeking to align diversity, equity, and inclusion with core mission and long-term impact. Based on interviews with advocates and prospective advocates of color, as well as leaders across racial identity groups, the report outlines two key approaches: organizational justice and social justice. Organizational justice represents the essential baseline for any organization committed to this work, while social justice approaches can be layered on strategically and with honest self-assessment about how they connect to the organization’s mission and identity. The report provides tailored recommendations by advocacy type and mission focus, and invites organizations to move beyond symbolic gestures and take meaningful steps toward deeper inclusion, shared power, and lasting change.

Also see Andrea Polanco, the report's second author, and I discuss the paper and recommendations for animal advocacy and social sector organizations generally.