Regent-designate Sonya Brooks

Sonya Brooks is the 2024-25 Student Regent-designate. She is a graduate student at UCLA, pursuing her PhD in Education and MPH in Community Health Sciences. She received her bachelor’s degree from UCLA in History and African American Studies and a master’s from Brown University in Urban Education Policy.

Ms. Brooks has extensive experience in consulting both at the educational and health care levels. She has worked in healthcare for over a decade, both as a consultant and an educator, where she trained practitioners on how to practice inclusive care. Ms. Brooks has also served as a guidance counselor and mentor in school districts in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.

She was recently selected to receive the EDI Student Leadership award and the True Bruin R.A.I.S.E Award. Along the lines of her research, Sonya was a Plant Futures Fellow with UC Berkeley, a Health Equity Challenge Finalist with the Fielding School of Public Health, and a Global Health Initiative Student Ambassador with the University of California. She is also the recipient of the Charles E. Young Community Service Award, the Graduate Council Diversity Fellowship, and the Chancellor’s Student Achievement Award, just to name a few.

Sonya is the past Vice President of External Affairs for the UCLA Graduate Student Association (GSA), the President of the Black Graduate Student Association (BGSA), and board member of the University of California Graduate & Professional Student Council (UCGPC), UCLA Alumni Association, and the UCLA Black Alumni Association (UBAA).

Ms. Brooks is a Bay Area native and a first-generation college student. She is the mother of three beautiful children and has dedicated her life to improving the health and educational conditions of children and families who are medically underserved.

Sonya is intentional about advocating for housing, mental health resources, and the basic needs of graduate students on the local, state, and federal levels. Her research interests lie at the intersection of education, public health, policy, and intergenerational narratives. Sonya’s community-based research endeavors are centered on improving social drivers of health among girls and women uses her platform to speak to the eradication of food apartheid and preventable chronic health diseases and ailments in overlooked communities.