Marta Macías Brown, a member of the SBVC Alumni Hall of Fame, worked throughout her life to serve the Inland Empire as an educator, journalist, and activist.

After growing up on the west side of San Bernardino, she graduated from SBVC and then Cal State San Bernardino, where she was a founding member of the first United Mexican American Students chapter, a precursor to Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA). MeChA promotes Chicano empowerment and unity.

“My time at Valley helped me to determine my goals to pursue higher education,” she said. “I had very special professors who encouraged me to continue my studies in science.”

As a graduate student at UC Riverside, Macías Brown taught history at SBVC and Chaffey College, and in 1968 helped establish El Chicano newspaper, one of the Inland Empire's first Spanish publications. She was the founding editor of the newspaper, and went on to also serve as a San Bernardino County community education specialist and a student affirmative action officer at UCR.

Macías Brown was an active member of the political scene, coordinating the local presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy and collaborating with United Farm Workers to bring Cesar Chavez to the area. She worked with and later married Rep. George E. Brown and helped facilitate the preservation of her husband’s congressional papers through the Brown Legacy Project at UCR.

Following her death in 2021, Macías Brown's family established a scholarship at SBVC to continue her legacy as a “firm believer in the power of education to transform lives and communities."

Marta Macias Brown

Hall of Fame Alumna Marta Macias Brown