Ahmmad Brown

Ahmmad Brown, PhD, is a Principal Advisor with Working IDEAL and a Professor of the Practice at Tufts University’s Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life. A practitioner-scholar, Ahmmad studies and advises on organizational inclusion, the productive role of disagreement, and inequality in times of disruptive change. Grounded in organizational behavior and sociology, his work connects research and practice to shape new approaches to leadership, institutional design, and equity. He brings together evidence-based change management, strategic insight, and dialogic engagement to help leaders and teams build more just and resilient organizations across sectors.

Ahmmad’s academic and public writing has appeared in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, Organization Development Review, and the Journal of Applied Social Science. His teaching materials have been recognized and published by the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.

At Working IDEAL, Ahmmad contributes to the firm’s thought leadership and leads the development of a maturity model to guide organizations through long-term equity and culture transformation. His consulting work—spanning strategic planning, organizational assessment, leadership development, and learning design—draws on mixed-methods research and a deep understanding of institutional systems. Prior to joining Working IDEAL, Ahmmad co-founded and led Equity Based Dialogue for Inclusion (EBDI), which provided consulting and advisory services to mission-driven and impact-oriented leaders and organizations.

Before his current role at Tufts, Ahmmad served as an Assistant Professor of Instruction at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy, where he taught in the Master’s and Executive programs in Learning and Organizational Change and led the Leading Equity and Inclusion in Organizations Certificate program. Earlier in his career, he was a consultant at The Bridgespan Group and worked in college admissions.

Ahmmad holds a PhD in Organizational Behavior from Harvard University, an MBA and MA in Education from Stanford University, and a BA in Sociology & Anthropology and Japanese from Swarthmore College. You can learn more about his work at ahmmadbrown.com.