Founded at Brown in 1992, The Leadership Alliance is a leading national consortium of 41 institutions that trains, mentors and inspires students from diverse backgrounds to pursue professional research careers. 

With a focus on reaching students from backgrounds historically underrepresented in research fields, business and higher education, the alliance builds pathways and advances its commitment to building and sustaining a more diverse national research workforce. The alliance has served more than 7,000 young scholars since its inception, including more than 1,000 scholars who have completed Ph.D. or MD-Ph.D. degrees, demonstrating the power of scholarship to advance justice and equity.

The Leadership Alliance is composed of a diverse array of institutional partners — from Brown to Harvard University to the University of Miami, to minority-serving institutions and historically Black colleges and universities such as Tougaloo College and Morehouse College. Through its leading-edge work, the alliance is advancing an ambitious mission to address a stark shortfall of individuals from historically underrepresented groups who earn doctoral degrees and pursue careers in research, the public sector and business.

Originally established by Vartan Gregorian, who served as Brown’s president from 1989 to 1997, The Leadership Alliance’s executive office is housed at Brown and the consortium continues to serve at the leading edge of efforts to diversify and strengthen the nation’s workforce.