Dr. Siri Brown is the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs and Support Services at Peralta Community College District.  Dr. Brown has been a faculty member in Ethnic and African American Studies at Merritt College (home of the Black Panther Party) and UC Berkeley.  She holds an M.A. in African American Studies and a Ph.D. in U.S. History with an emphasis in Early American, African American and U.S. Women’s History from The Ohio State University. Her research centers on the racialized legal and social resistance to violence against women.

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Dr. Brown and her department established the Africana Studies Center at Merritt which holds an original digital and interactive curriculum on African and African American History that is bilingual and exceeds District ADA requirements. Most importantly, Dr. Brown is the great-great granddaughter of Lula Glaspie Chatham of Carthage, Texas, a skilled midwife who defied racial and gender lines by traveling through the region assisting in the births and healing of both Black and white patrons. Dr. Brown comes from a long, strong family line who believe in fighting for justice and building projects and institutions that express a deep love for Black people.