Compost University™ Faculty
Kourtnii Brown
California Alliance for Community Composting
San Francisco, CA | kourtnii.brown@gmail.com
Kourtnii Brown is a worm wrangler, soil slinger, and the Founder and Director of Common Compost in Oakland, California. Her on-site community compost projects empower sustainable resource recovery and improve local food systems in Alameda, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles counties. Before Common Compost was hatched, Kourtnii spent 15 years as an environmental policy analyst working to strengthen natural resource management and build community resilience to climate change, with field experience across the Asia-Pacific region. She currently consults on compost policy initiatives for the Sustainable Economies Law Center and Institute for Local Self Reliance, who collaborate to educate community composters from around the Bay Area and the country on how to participate in shaping local compost rules and ordinances. Kourtnii also co-founded and serves on the Steering Committee for the California Alliance for Community Composting, which was recently awarded a $1.35m grant from CalRecycle to expand small-scale composting infrastructure and training in low-income communities throughout the state.