El Camino College Trustee Ken Brown has passed away from unknown causes, according to members of the education community.
Brown was elected to serve Trustee Area 1 which includes Inglewood. He was reelected to his position in November 2020. Brown has been a part of the Board of Trustees since 2010 when he was appointed to fill the vacant spot left by the late Nathaniel Jackson.
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“The sudden loss of our friend and colleague has sent shockwaves throughout our campus community, and no doubt throughout the many networks and circles that Trustee Brown traveled through,” the college said in a statement. “He was tirelessly dedicated to the mission of providing quality educational opportunities to students. He will be dearly missed.”
According to the bio on his website KenBrownECC.com:
He is currently the President of the Governing Board of Trustees at El Camino Community College District in Torrance, California. He has served on the staff at California State University of Dominguez Hills since 2002 as an adjunct professor of Physics teaching primarily Physical Science and Science, Math, and Technology (SMT).
During the day, Ken is a Systems Engineering Manager for the Payload and Ground Systems Engineering Integration and Testing (SEIT) Division of Northrop Grumman Space Systems in Redondo Beach, CA.
Since joining Northrop, he has had several roles, including representing all of GPS SE&I to the Civil Navigation community as the Civil Signals Capabilities Lead for SE&I Engineering Integration. Here he presented directly to the DoT/FAA and at forums promoting Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) used in the planning and execution of next-generation GPS III Civil Signal delivery.
Ken currently holds the role of Insertion Chief Systems Engineer for the AMP Mission Enhancement SE&I Group. He is the lead for a major new enhancement to the program, driving technical integration to meet performance and functional requirements, and owns thread scope for insertion including cost, schedule, risks, trades, and staffing.
Ken received his B.S. in Computer Science and B.S. in Physics from Morehouse College in Atlanta, and an M.S. in Applied Physics from Clark Atlanta University. Brown joined Northrop Grumman in 2015 after serving for more than 20 years as a Senior Engineer and Project Controls Liaison at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. Brown last worked as a System Engineering Analyst for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) External Metrology.
Ken also served the California Department of Education as a Content Review Panel expert during California’s State Board Science Primary Adoption and helped author the Next Generation Science Standards being used in classrooms today in over 40 states.
In 2016, Ken was elected to the California Community College Trustees (CCCT) Board where he provides input to help guide decisions to serve the organization’s member colleges better. In 2020, Brown was elected to serve as President-Elect of the CCCT Board. The CCCT Board is a board comprising 21 members elected statewide. Board members also take positions on and formulate education policy issues that come before the California Community Colleges Board of Governors, the State Legislature and other state-level boards and commissions. Ken also serves as President of CCCT’s Board Financial Aid Implementation Committee as well as the Institutional Effectiveness Partnership Initiative (IEPI) Change Leadership Committee. On a national level, Ken was appointed to serve on the Association of Community College Trustee (ACCT) Public Policy and Advocacy Committee. ACCT is the organization that represents over 6,500 trustees and more than 520 governing boards who govern public and private community, technical, and junior colleges across the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom.
In 2018, he was nominated and selected as the Black Engineer of the Year Modern Day Technology Leader Award Recipient
Born and raised in Carson, California, Ken had more than a respectable athletic career during college and beyond. While at Morehouse, he was twice named All-American in Track & Field and played in the NCAA Div. II Basketball Final Four. Later, he qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials and Pan AM Games in the high jump.
Ken currently lives in Inglewood with his wife of 21 years and their two sons.
2UrbanGirls sends our condolences to his family and friends.
