Brandon
Terry
Full Bio
Brandon Terry, an aspiring scholar, journalist,
commentator, community organizer, entrepreneur,
teacher, and political consultant—was born in
Baltimore, Maryland to two parents who encouraged
leadership, drive, and awareness. Brandon’s
success is a testament to the strength of family
and the belief that preparation creates opportunity.
In 2001, Brandon became the first graduate of
his Baltimore County public high school, Western
School of Technology and Environmental Science,
to attend an Ivy League school. He enrolled
at Harvard University and graduated Magna
Cum Laude in 2005 with a degree in Government
and African and African American Studies.
As President of the Harvard Black Men’s Forum
(2003-2004), Brandon helped guide the organization
to an increased membership and newfound status
as one of the most financially active groups
on campus while organizing a number of important
programs including an annual alternative career
fair, a hip-hop and politics initiative for
the 2004 election season (covered by MTVNews
and the Boston Globe), a group to increase minority
representation on the student council, and numerous
events with renowned black faculty members and
national figures.
As a freshman, Brandon was inspired by a black
female mentor and teacher at Harvard to get
involved with the anti-sexual violence movement
on campus and helped to turn the Black Men’s
Forum into a consistent and active supporter
of the annual Take Back the Night Week and dialogue
on sexual violence between black men and black
women. As a senior, he also served as a peer
educator for Harvard’s Office of Sexual Assault
Prevention and Response in its first year of
student-led anti-sexual violence trainings.
Perhaps his biggest organizational accomplishment
to date is as a founder and core committee member
of Unite Against AIDS, a coalition of groups
whose first project was the inaugural Unite
Against AIDS Summit: HIV/AIDS in Africa and
the African Diaspora—a huge attempt to mobilize
students, particularly black students, around
the issue of AIDS at home and abroad. The weekend-long
summit drew over 600 attendees from around the
country and featured some of the most respected
activists, analysts, and leaders on HIV/AIDS
in the world today. The Summit, at which Brandon
gave closing remarks, has also been webcast
to many more by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Off campus, Brandon was involved in public
service, where he worked for youth mentoring
programs, including the W.E.B. DuBois Society
in Dorchester and the Mission Hill Summer Program
in Roxbury. Brandon won the 2004 Benjamin Franklin
Legacy Prize in Public Service for his work
in the latter. He also wrote a bi-weekly opinion
column for The Harvard Crimson, “On The
Real,” which has been re-printed in numerous
publications, and has also written pieces for
The Baltimore Sun, The Harvard Independent,
the Black Men’s Forum’s REMIX magazine,
New Deal Magazine, and The Black Guide
to Life at Harvard and provided commentary
for Time Magazine, The Boston Globe,
MTV News, Bloomberg News, and other publications
and news services. Brandon’s writings (and activism)
on Sudan in particular garnered significant
attention on and off campus, as the recent divestment
campaign at Harvard gained momentum and significant
victories.
Still devoting time and energy to his academics,
Brandon conducted independent undergraduate
research work on both the effects of residential
segregation on black political participation
and black feminist political thought as a Mellon
Fellow. The Mellon Foundation, the Institute
of Politics, the Harvard College Research Fund,
and the Dean’s Summer Research Fund, also funded
Brandon’s senior thesis research for his political
philosophy thesis entitled, “Birth of a (Black)
Nation: Redefining, Reconsidering, and Reconstructing
Black Nationalism,” which received Magna
Plus honors.
Currently, Brandon is studying political philosophy
abroad at the University of Oxford on the prestigious
Michael Von Clemm Fellowship and writing a thesis
on the ideal of authenticity and its intersection
with political peoplehood. After Oxford, he
hopes to pursue a PhD in political science,
with an emphasis on theory and philosophy. Ultimately,
Brandon desires to lead a think tank that deals
with issues of race, class, and inequality globally,
as well as pursue other projects in education,
business, real estate, politics, and entertainment.
