The work began
before the title.
I am Cerissa A. Brown, LBSW, Founder and Principal of Cerissa A. Brown & Associates and Originator of WISE. My work centers Black women’s mental and behavioral health, and a concern I keep returning to: whether we are understood, taken seriously, and supported.
From community work
to a wider purpose.
I began public advocacy and community work in 2008. Before earning my social work license, I was organizing around needs that were too often overlooked.
I created and led Birmingham’s MLK Day of Service Feminine Hygiene Drive for three consecutive years, from 2021 through 2023. My public leadership has also included a 2021 campaign for Mayor of Birmingham and public testimony on coal ash, environmental justice, and community health in 2023.
I founded Reecee’s Reach in 2023 and Cerissa A. Brown & Associates in February 2024. As my work expanded into social work, clinical study, research, and writing, Black women remained at its center.
My professional experience spans mobile crisis response, medical respite, survivor advocacy, housing navigation, access to care, and program development. That experience keeps practical needs and access to care in view.
The perspective I bring.
My work is informed by my own lived experience with mental health as a Black woman, alongside professional practice, research, and advocacy.
I am interested in serious mental illness, mood and personality disorders, stigma and self-stigma, assessment, and treatment experiences. One question runs through much of my research: how do people and institutions decide what a Black woman’s behavior, distress, and mental health symptoms mean, and what happens to her because of those interpretations?
I bring these questions into writing, storytelling, and education in language people can understand and use. My books and original intellectual work also make room for relationships, community, and the wider circumstances of Black women’s lives.
Current preparation & selected recognition
I hold a Bachelor of Social Work and am an Alabama Licensed Bachelor Social Worker nearing completion of an advanced clinical MSW with a mental health focus. I am a 2026–2027 Council on Social Work Education Substance Use Disorders Education and Leadership Scholar.
I am completing the Fall 2026 Maternal Mental Health Certificate Course through the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health and Postpartum Support International. My continuing preparation includes motivational interviewing, suicide prevention, clinical documentation, personality disorders, and research ethics.
My leadership development includes the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center’s Milestone Circles, the 2023 LBJ Women’s Campaign School, the ACLU of Alabama Smart Justice Organizing School, and Higher Heights for America’s #BlackWomenLead Bootcamp. I completed the Bank of America Institute for Women’s Entrepreneurship at Cornell certificate program in January 2021 and NonprofitReady’s Nonprofit Board Member Essentials Certificate Program in October 2023.
Selected recognition includes the National Society of Leadership and Success Dream Support Grant, received in December 2023.
My longer-term professional direction includes independent clinical practice, advanced assessment, mediation, court consultation, and doctoral research.
Start with a conversation.
For a speaking invitation or educational collaboration, tell me about your audience and what you want the conversation to accomplish.