Our Team

Khari Brown is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Spark the Journey. Khari joined Spark the Journey in 2001 as the organization’s Executive Director and became CEO in 2015.

At the time Khari joined, he was Spark the Journey’s only employee and has since built the organization from a niche program that reached only 50 students per year to a burgeoning organization that is currently supporting more than 500 students and has grown by 400% since 2012. By expanding its program offerings and leveraging the power of hundreds of trained volunteers on daily basis, Spark the Journey has been remarkably successful in helping its students overcome the barriers that limit most low-income students. Under Khari’s leadership, Spark the Journey has seen 61% of its graduates’ complete college on time, a rate that is nearly three times that of similar students nationally.

Khari received both a Bachelor’s degree in American Studies and a Master’s degree in Education from Tufts University. A two-time captain of the Tufts basketball team, he played professional basketball in Helsinki, Finland upon graduating from college. After his playing career ended in 1995, he spent six years coaching high school and college basketball in the Boston area. He also owned and operated a fitness and sports performance business serving individual clients and offering clinics and camps for high school and college athletes. Khari’s involvement working with urban teens through his various coaching experiences led him to pursue a career in expanding educational opportunities for low-income youth.

Khari and his wife are the proud parents of two children who attend DC Public Schools.

Personal Quote: “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” – Malcolm X