Our Story
Talent is everywhere. Access is not.
We believe leadership potential exists in every community, but access to graduate education, influential networks, and the opportunities that shape careers, income, and generational wealth does not. Leadership Brainery was founded to help close that gap.
Our founding story
They experienced the barriers themselves and built what they wish existed.
Derrick Young Jr. and Jonathan L. Allen met as student leaders at Grambling State University. Beginning in 2013, they led student trainings, mentorship initiatives, and campus programs focused on leadership development and civic engagement. As more students sought their guidance, what began as informal mentorship revealed a larger pattern: talented students—especially students from underrepresented backgrounds—were being shut out of opportunity not because they lacked ambition or ability, but because they lacked access to information, financial resources, networks, and support navigating complex systems.
That reality became even clearer during their own graduate school journeys. While pursuing graduate and professional degrees at some of the nation’s most competitive institutions, both were often among the only Black students in their cohorts, navigating financial barriers, opaque admissions processes, and isolating academic spaces.
In 2018, they established Leadership Brainery as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to help more students access the graduate education, networks, and opportunities too often reserved for the few.
Leadership Brainery exists to increase access to master’s and doctoral degrees for students who lack access to networks, preparation, and opportunities that shape leadership and generational wealth. Through admissions and financial aid guidance, mentorship, institutional partnerships, and direct student support, the organization works to make graduate education more accessible, attainable, and sustainable.
Since its founding, Leadership Brainery has supported thousands of students nationwide, invested millions into student support and programming, and built a growing community of future doctors, lawyers, educators, researchers, public health leaders, and changemakers.
As access to higher education continues to face political and structural challenges, Leadership Brainery remains committed to building more accessible pathways to leadership—because who gets access to advanced degrees ultimately shapes who gets to lead, influence, and serve.
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