2026 Joe Manns Black Wall Street Award Honoree
(BALTIMORE – July 31, 2026) – Every city has its detractors. Every city has people who come into distressed communities looking for profit, attention, notoriety or fame.
But every city also has its heroes and sheroes.
Donna Brown is one of Baltimore’s.
I have known Donna for more than a decade. I remember her during the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s death in 2015, when Sandtown-Winchester became the center of national attention.
That was when you saw the real heart of Baltimore—the heart of Sandtown, the heart of Upton, the heart of Penn North, the heart of West Baltimore and, ultimately, the heart of the entire city.
You saw the people who genuinely cared.
Helping to restore a fractured, torn and traumatized community takes people who are real. There are people who fake it. There are people who enter struggling communities for personal gain. They hold press conferences, take pictures and disappear when the cameras leave.
Donna Brown is different.
Donna is from this community. She loves the people here, and the people know it.
When Donna walks down Pennsylvania Avenue, she does not need a bodyguard. From Pennsylvania and Laurens Street to the heart of the Avenue, the young people look out for her because they know how deeply she cares about them.
That is how big her heart is.
Organizing for Change
Donna is a community strategist, youth advocate and founder of Making Changes, a grassroots organization that uses community organizing to confront social injustice and pursue systemic change.
For more than a decade, she has worked at the intersection of youth empowerment, substance-use prevention and community transformation. Her work is grounded in undoing racism, advancing equity and building collective liberation.
Following Freddie Gray’s death, Donna became a founding member of the Campaign for Justice, Safety and Jobs. The coalition emerged during one of the most painful periods in Baltimore’s modern history, advocating for police accountability, public safety and systemic reform.
Her commitment did not end when the national cameras left Baltimore.
Donna has continued challenging systems that disproportionately harm young people, incarcerated citizens, returning citizens, women and families. As an organizational partner with the Citizens Policing Project, she helps train young organizers to understand those systems, find their voices and advocate for change.
Gov. Wes Moore appointed Donna to Maryland’s Administrative Charging Committee, giving her an opportunity to help advance accountability within the state’s police disciplinary process.
Going Where the Work Is Needed
Donna has also volunteered inside Maryland prisons for 12 years, working with both young people and adults. Through ministry, mentoring and transformational programming, she has invested her time in people whom society too often overlooks.
That kind of service requires more than words. It requires courage, consistency and compassion.
Donna’s advocacy is also deeply personal. As a survivor of sexual assault and domestic violence, she draws from her lived experience to help other survivors find support, healing and a path forward.
She understands that transformation cannot be imposed on people from the outside. It must be built through trust, relationships, shared experiences and a genuine belief in the dignity of every human being.
Protecting Baltimore’s Young People
Donna is also a respected leader in youth substance-use prevention. She develops equity-centered initiatives that promote resilience, self-awareness and belonging while helping protect young people from the harms associated with tobacco, marijuana and other substances.
Through coalition building, Donna works to create environments where young people can thrive. She does not simply lecture them about what they should avoid. She listens to them, values their experiences and helps them understand the systems and circumstances influencing their choices.
Donna has a gift for connecting personal stories to broader community strategy. Drawing upon principles of complexity science, she helps communities identify and challenge the interconnected systems that perpetuate inequity.
Whether she is leading a neighborhood initiative, training youth organizers, supporting survivors, advocating for incarcerated people or mentoring the next generation, Donna bridges story, strategy and solidarity.
She helps communities create healing and transformation from the ground up.
The Real Heart of Baltimore
Baltimore is too often defined by people who do not know its neighborhoods, its families or its history.
They do not know the women like Donna Brown who keep showing up.
They do not see the years of unpaid work, the young lives touched, the people encouraged or the communities held together through sheer love and determination.
But we see her.
The young people on Pennsylvania Avenue see her.
West Baltimore sees her.
Donna Brown represents what the Joe Manns Black Wall Street Awards were created to celebrate: people who love their communities through action.
Love is a verb. Donna Brown lives that truth every day.
For her unwavering commitment to Baltimore’s young people, families and neighborhoods, BMORENews is proud to recognize Donna Brown as a 2026 Joe Manns Black Wall Street Award honoree.
Join us on Wednesday, August 5, at the PS 103 Thurgood Marshall Amenity Center for the Black Wall Street Summit: National Black Business Month Edition.
RSVP: blackwallstreetsummit26.eventbrite.com
