Brandon Brown

As CEO, Brandon Brown leads The Mind Trust’s groundbreaking work to provide every Indianapolis student the opportunity to attend an excellent school. The Mind Trust advances this vision through three strategies: growing great schools; investing in talented educators to launch and staff these schools; and amplifying the conditions for schools’ success. Brandon previously oversaw The Mind Trust’s three education incubators as Senior Vice President for Education Innovation. In this capacity, he primarily focused on The Mind Trust’s Innovation School Fellowship, a unique partnership with the Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) to incubate excellent Innovation Network Schools that serve all students well. Brandon Brown joined The Mind Trust after three years of service as the City of Indianapolis’ charter schools director under Mayor Greg Ballard. As charter schools director from 2012 to 2015, Brandon oversaw 35 charter schools and four turnaround schools serving nearly 15,000 students. Also under his watch, the Mayor’s Office opened 15 new charter schools and gained oversight of four turnaround schools. According to a 2015 Stanford University study, students attending Mayor-sponsored charter schools gained an additional two to three months of learning each school year as compared to their traditional public school peers. Before joining the Mayor’s Office, Brandon served in several leadership roles with Teach For America (TFA)-Indianapolis, including as managing director of community partnerships of the Indianapolis office. He previously was a TFA corps member and taught English at Carnahan High School in St. Louis. Brandon was selected by Indianapolis Business Journal for its “40 Under 40” class in 2019. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis and a master’s degree in secondary education from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He has been an advisory board member for Teach Plus-Indianapolis, a statewide council member for the Indiana Center for Family, School and Community Partnerships and a member of the Central Indiana Education Alliance.