Fellows Advisory Board Profiles
The MLK Fellows Advisory Board (FAB) is comprised of student leaders highly engaged with the fellowship who are interested in collaborating with staff on programming, communications, operations and peer mentoring initiatives. Read more about the 2023-2024 FAB below!
My name is Daphne (she/her) and I am from NYC. I am a double major in Latin American, Caribbean, & Latinx Studies and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. My on campus involvements include being a research assistant with the SCRoLL Lab and as a UDR for the LACLS program. A fun fact about my Brandeis experience is that I studied abroad in Ecuador during my junior year! I am super excited to be on FAB this year and my favorite thing about the MLK Fellowship is the community you foster both within and outside of your cohort.
My name is Micah Bryant and I am from Houston, TX. I plan to major in neuroscience and have not decided on a minor yet, but I am leaning toward psychology. I am a part of the Platinum Step Team at Brandeis and we are always looking for more people to join. I also enjoy skateboarding and playing basketball in my spare time. I love being a part of the MLK Fellowship because there is constant support present in this family of ours. It is as if you have a lot of siblings who are completely honest and look out for your best interest.
Brandie Garcia (any pronouns) is a current junior originating from Chelsea, Massachusetts. Despite currently double-majoring in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies (LACLS) and Music, Brandie is currently in the process of creating an music-based Independent Interdisciplinary Major called Black Music Studies to better serve their academic interests in Black music as a tool of liberation, protest, and joy. Outside of academics, Brandie is the publicity manager for Brandeis VoiceMale, a member of the GenOne Board, a LACLS Undergraduate Representative, and a sociology research assistant studying race and racism under Professor Sarah Mayorga. One of Brandie's favorite things about the MLK Fellowship is the close friends they've gained in the group along the way as well as bugging their academic advisors for fun. Reach out to Brandie if you have any interests in queer music, the a cappella community at Brandeis, gaining resources and opportunities as a first-generation student, and considering careers/studies in the creative arts.
My name is Mona and my pronouns are she/her/hers. My hometown is Watertown, MA. I major in Psych and HSSP. On campus, I will be working in a psych lab and I am the president of BNAS (Brandeis network of Arab Students). Off campus, I tutor in English/Arabic and I work at the MRI lab at McLean Hospital. I enjoy the connectedness and the mesh of personalities that can be found with the MLK Fellowship community.
My name is Melora Hutcheson (they/she) and I’m an MLK Fellow and a Junior at Brandeis. I am majoring in Sociology with a double-minor in African & African-American Studies (AAAS) and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGS). Originally, I’m from Daytona Beach, Florida, but I currently live in Tucson, Arizona–where I attended middle and high school. Growing up, I moved around a lot on the East Coast, and Massachusetts is now the sixth state I have lived in! Over the summer, I interned for the African American Museum of Southern Arizona where I helped with event planning, community outreach, and public relations, all leading up to its official opening to the public sometime in 2024. Now back on campus, I am a general member of the Femmes of Color Alliance (FOCA), the Brandeis Black Students Organization (BBSO), and the Brandeis African Student Organization (BASO). In Fall semester 2023, I will serve as Co-President (along with MLK Fellow, Brandie Ray Garcia) of The Intersection, a club/safe space for queer POC. Brandie and I have restructured the club, and are working toward it becoming officially recognized and chartered here at Brandeis.
I am also one of only two returning members of the MLK Fellow Advisory Board! I look forward to reconnecting with folks and sharing ideas for the events we have planned for our incoming and continuing MLK’s this year! While there are so many great things I could list about the MLK Fellows, one aspect I enjoy the most about this fellowship is the opportunity for friendship and community. I’ve met and had a chance to foster so many genuine relationships with friends that I believe will last a lifetime. It truly is a family unit; I love the MLK Fellows, and I’m glad to be called one :)
My name is Kevin (he/him/his) and I am from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic but grew up in Lynn, MA roughly 15 minutes north of Boston. I am a double major in Business and Sociology with a minor in African and African American Studies here at Brandeis! I am pretty involved on campus as I am the ICC Delegate for the Men of Color Alliance (MOCA) and Co-Treasurer for the Brandeis LatinX Student Organization (BLSO) while also being a part of the Fellowship Advisory Board for MLK's of course. Off Campus I work as an Office Assistant for Stockton Financial in the Waltham area. My favorite thing about the MLK Community would definitely be the fun memories we always make with our events and with each other! I tend to document literally everything for the MLK Instagram, so sharing them with the Brandeis Community really rectifies us (in my humble opinion) as the most fun and unique cohort at Brandeis.
My name is Deynie, or Dey for short, and my pronouns are she/her/hers. I’m from New York City (and I make sure that everyone around me knows that) but my family is originally from the Dominican Republic! I’m double majoring in Health: Science, Society and Policy and Business, as well as considering a minor in Spanish. You’ll usually find me in the library but when I do show my face, I like to attend Brandeis Black Student Organization (BBSO) and Brandeis African Student Organization (BASO) because it’s important to me that Black and brown students have a safe space to discuss what affects us as a community. In my remaining time at Brandeis I’d love to join clubs like FOCA because womanhood is essential to my identity. I genuinely have so much love for the MLK fellowship community we have developed. I truly feel like I have formed my second family with these individuals as we’re all very close with one another despite being involved in different things and having different majors. I think the upside to this though is that you’re likely to find an MLK member anywhere on campus. One of my favorite things about this community is our yearly retreats as it allows us to get to know the incoming class, as well as returning students better. I will always be thankful that if nothing else, on campus I will always have my MLK community