Tony Brown started his career at Heart of Los Angeles in 1993, spending two years with the organization. Tony went on to become a teacher and Athletics Director before embarking on a career in sports business.

However, Tony’s passion for education called him back to Heart of Los Angeles and in 2006 began serving as the organization’s Executive Director. Since then, Tony has led the sustainable growth of Heart of Los Angeles’ annual operating budget from $2.3 million to more than $9.76 million annually, reaching 74% more underserved young people with programs and supports, and inspiring a generation of youth to realize their full potential. He has received numerous awards, including the LA Business Journal Leadership Excellence Award and Bank of America’s Local Hero award. Tony was also named as one of Town & Country’s Top 50 Philanthropists. and recognized for Leadership Innovation by the James Irvine Foundation, later selected as a 2022 Durfee Foundation Stanton Fellow.

Tony holds a BA from Loyola Marymount University and an MS from the University of Tennessee, named as a Distinguished Alumni by both institutions to reflect his longstanding commitment to giving back to the places he calls home. Tony is also a Stanford University Graduate Fellow in the Business School’s Social Innovation Program for Non-Profit Leaders and remains engaged in higher education, having previously served as both a member of a Scripps College Advisory Board and as President of the University of Tennessee’s Dean’s Board of Advisors. In the non-profit space, Tony served L.A.’s Promise Zone Leadership Council and on the Advisory Committee for the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. Tony is currently the Board Chair for LA’s first afterschool intermediary, Expand LA and State Senate appointed Advisor to the California Department of Education’s Expanded Learning Division.