Maisie Brown is a 2020 graduate Murrah High School in Jackson, Miss., who will attend historic North Carolina A & T State University. Starting as a columnist at the Jackson Free Press, she has published several pieces there and in other places about the need to change the Mississippi flag, state universities, and Mississippi as a whole to be more inviting to all its residents.

She was a TEDxJackson Women speaker where she chronicled her time at the Mississippi Youth Media Project, learning that you don’t have to agree with people, to work with people. She’s been heavily involved in advocacy throughout the years, which even took her to the nation’s capital to advocate for the need to change the state flag.

Maisie has moderated mayoral debates, served on the Jackson mayor’s education transition team and offers free ACT workshops for students in the community. She’s volunteered on numerous political campaigns.

More recently, she was named the Youth Program Director at the Institute for Democratic Education in America where she works hands on with students around Jackson on the concept of democratic education and learning to advocate for themselves. She plans to major in History and Secondary Education.