Check Out Dr. Caroll J Brown III’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you toDr. Caroll J Brown III.

Hi, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
“If it is to be, it is up to me” – Carroll Brown Jr (My Father)

I open with that quote from my father because it was messages like that from him that helped set the foundation for who I am today. Who am I? – I am the product of a single black man raised in South Central LA. Raised by a man who refused to bend nor fold. I’m a believer that there are two important dates in your life, the day you are born, and when you learn why. However, what influences that direction? What shapes that purpose?

For me it started at home – My father was an amazing, and lovable man who recently passed away on December 30th, 2022. Growing up, my father was my first exposure to what it means to be unapologetically and authentically black. It was his resilience, and tenacity while working multiple jobs in addition to raising two boys in what some would call the hood. He had a purpose! We were his why. My story couldn’t possibly be told without recognizing and giving him his flowers for helping create the framework of core values centered around love and growth that I operate on today. Many of the things that I have encountered through my life thus far, and what has gotten me to this point, and looking to continue to go even further is all due to the seed planted in me at an early age by my father-  “If it is to be, It is up to me”.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I have a saying, “Don’t just go through life, Grow through life”. I like to think that best summarizes my life in retrospect. Just as mentioned about my father, I too refused to neither bend nor fold. You can say I had a great role model. Everything from trials and obstacles he went through he kept one thing for sure that we knew growing up “If it is to be, it is up to me”. It’s that very message that has been the fuel behind everything that I do. The image of me that I Portray for the world is of a man who believes wholeheartedly -“If it is to be, it is up to me”.

In undergrad, I attended California State University Northridge (CSUN) where in 2009 I was kicked out of school due to poor academics. I was told by a counselor that “maybe school isn’t for people like you”. I did everything to get back into school, even collecting cans. Fast forward nine years later I was to speaker at my graduation where I received my Doctorate – “If it is to be it’s up to me”. Now three years after that graduation, I sit as President of the Black Alumni Association at CSUN, and I just finished teaching my first course at CSUN Fall 2022 semester – “If it is to be it’s up to me”.

Looking back, it was never easy, however, I always had the belief that I can do it – “If it is to be, It’s up to me”. I just needed the action behind the mindset. I had the foundation; the motivation came second. What pushed me was the idea that I’m doing this for my last name and not my first. I’m doing this for my community, for the young boys like me who were told that this isn’t for you. I’m also doing this for the generation like my father who sacrificed for me to even be called Dr. Carroll Brown.

In college where my maturation started, it did take some time. However, it happened when it needed to. In undergrad, I was kicked out of school and slept in my car. I was too prideful to tell anyone. Until someone started to catch on when I’d house-hop and stay at friends’ houses so long that they’d let me crash on the couch. One of my older mentors and frat brat brothers introduced me to a profession that at the time I never knew would change the trajectory of my life. It was there I realized helping these young men try to change their lives I was allowing mine to slip. I realized I was a contradiction, and not walking the message I was preaching to these kids. That’s when I began to center my focus and be the change I wanted to see. However, it is with that change in the words of James Baldwin who said, “the more educated you become, the more enraged you become”. I couldn’t work in the system anymore, being exposed to young black and brown boys in chains and handcuffs became triggering for me emotionally. I knew I had to move back to the neighborhood that few are blessed to get out of, to help create change within. That’s where the shift happened. That’s where my great A-HA moment happened, and I began doing more work in the community with organizations full of people who have similar if not the same vision of change as I do. I tell young people that I engage with that Life is God’s gift to us, and how we live our lives is our gift to God”. When trying to further see more in themselves than what the world sees. I tell them about my father who was once like them and he would preach “If it is to be, It’s up to me.”

I’d like to think that I’m a product of mentorship, other black men investing in me and seeing the greatness in me helped change my life. They saw in me what I wasn’t ready to see. I’ll forever be grateful to the Black men in Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. Kappa Alpha chapter, all the great black men at Rancho San Antonio Boys home who I worked with, and lastly my Father who saw greatness in me since day one.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I love what I do. I truly enjoy working with youth and young adults. Helping shape their minds and perspectives. Helping them develop and re-imagine who they are, and how they want to be perceived in the world.

“Look at a man or woman the way that they are, they only become worse. If you look at them as if they were what they could be. Then they become what they should be”. It is with this mindset that I try to connect with the youth because I see more in them than what society defines them as. I tell them as my father Carroll Brown Jr. taught me, “If it is to be, it’s up to me”.

Currently, I work with Friends LA as a Director for the Fostering Resiliency Program (FRP). The goal of that program is to work with community-based organizations (The Enlightened Mentor “TEM”, Shoes 4 Grades “S4G”, Emerge, Twinspire, and Youth Mentoring Connection “YMC”) in collaboration with LA County DCFS to provide mentorship to young black boys in foster care ages 11-18+.

I also am an Executive Coach where I work with a powerful black-owned coaching firm based out of Long Beach called MK Circle Institute under the direction of Dr. Karen Semien-McBride. Where we, a collective of Executive Coaches, Business Coaches, and Life Coaches, work with leaders of organizations to help create emotionally intelligent agents of change.

I’m a professor at Tarzana Treatment Center in the SUD certification program where I work as a faculty under the direction of Dr. James Golden as we train students who enroll in the program to become SUD counselors to help combat the drug epidemic.

I currently sit on the board as President of the Black Alumni Association at California State University Northridge, I sit on the board of The Village EP, and I sit on the Board of Minority Psychology Network. An organization geared toward helping communities of color understand and learn more about mental health through educational events.

I also sit as Vice President of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. Delta Psi Sigma chapter, and a founding member of the Giants Den, an organization geared towards the upliftment of Black Men)

Lastly, I volunteer with Seed House Project helping the lives of young adults who are homeless and creating a shift in their lives.

Everything that I’m currently involved in is with a purpose, and I consider it a part of my purpose. It’s strategic. I say there are two important dates in your life, when you’re born, and when you learn why. Everything I do is a part of my why.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Right now, I’ll be honest when I say that I’m struggling with happiness since the passing of my father. However, that’s also a part of the process. I decided to be honest because I think we need to normalize being ok with not being ok and being honest out loud. Society has made us think that it’s weak or soft to have these emotions and feelings.

I tell clients that I work with that “It’s ok to not be ok”, and honestly, right now, I’m not ok. However, what keeps me anchored and reminded of happiness is several things. I owe a lot of that to my family and friends who have shown up for me during this time of grief. I use friends in the wrong context. All of my friends in my life have become family to me. My support system is not only strong, but extremely present right now, and I’m leaning on them to keep me afloat. It refills my cup when I feel my cup is beginning to drain empty.

Next, I’d truly have to say my wife Dr. Kristyl Smith-Brown. We have been together since 2013 and got married during a pandemic in 2020. If you ask me, being married in a pandemic means you can multiply your marriage time by at least 3. She is my rock, and I’ll be honest, marriage is work, but it’s worth it. During this time she continues to support me, and keep me from staying in the “rabbit hole” of despair. Iron sharpens iron, Proverbs 18:22 “Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing And obtaineth favor of the LORD”.

Lastly, my father Carroll Brown Jr. a black man, who I continuously tried to give him his flowers while he was here to receive them. His memory, and all the trials and obstacles I was privileged to watch him overcome to help me be the man that I am, make me extremely happy. I learned from watching him, a black man in society who refused to bend or fold.

Honorable mention, the young men that I’m able to help create the change in their lives that they want to see, the young black boys in foster care. To the young black boy/man who is used to society telling him he isn’t enough, I see you, and I’m proud of you. Watching you grow through life, and not just go through life truly inspires me, and makes me happy.

• Email: DrBrown.Carroll@gmail.com
• Instagram:dr_carroll_brown3
• Linkedin:  linkedin.com/in/drcarrollbrowniii