STEFANIE BROWN JAMES
Stefanie Brown James has dedicated her life to empowering people to organize and advocate for
equality and expanded opportunities in their communities. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Stefanie
is the CEO and Founding Partner of Vestige Strategies, LLC – a Washington, DC based community
engagement firm that specializes in grassroots community and civic engagement strategies.
Through her role at Vestige, Stefanie builds engagement programs for campaigns, causes and
companies to move their audiences to take action while strengthening leaders and achieving
tangible results in the process.
Last August, Stefanie and her husband Quentin James co-founded The Collective PAC – a national
political action committee dedicated to recruiting, training, funding and supporting black
candidates to run for office on the local, state and federal level. In only a few months, the PAC has
raised over $125,000, launched a national campaign training operation and received 3,000+
contributions from supporters in 40+ states.
In 2012, Stefanie served as the National African American Vote Director for the Obama for
America Campaign. In this position, Stefanie organized the African Americans for Obama
program and managed the national strategy to engage African American leaders and voters to
register and re-elect President Barack Obama. As a result, Stefanie’s work contributed greatly to
the historic turnout of the African American community which voted at a higher rate than white
voters for the first time; approximately 66.2 percent of eligible Black voters cast ballots in 2012.
Formerly the National Field Director for the NAACP, Stefanie developed and administered the
national field organizing strategy for the NAACP’s 2,200 adult branches and youth units in 48
states and the District of Columbia. Concurrently, Stefanie served as the National Director of the
NAACP Youth & College Division representing 23,000 youth under the age of 25 around the
country.
A proud 2004 graduate of Howard University and current member of the Board of Trustees,
Stefanie is the founder and Executive Director of Brown Girls Lead, Inc.; a leadership
development organization for Black women focused on cultivating positive social change on
college campuses and in communities across the country.
A member of Antioch Baptist Church and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Stefanie has received
numerous awards and recognitions including being named as one of Campaign and Elections
Magazine’s “50 Influential People” changing the way we think about campaigns; The Grio 100;
TheRoot 100; and as one of Essence.com’s “Top 10 Emerging Political Leaders”. Above all,
Stefanie is most proud to be the wife of her business partner Quentin and mother to son, Carter.
www.StefanieBrownJames.com
[email protected]