Sabrina Natasha Browne ’13/M.A. ’16 is a fierce storyteller. Her voice resonates as a successful public relations executive, a champion of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), an advocate for women and girls, and as an online lifestyle influencer.
A vice president in the Corporate Affairs Practice at BCW, Browne advises Fortune 500 clients on strategic communications, executive thought leadership, media relations, and DEI. She also serves as the North American Lead for BCW’s African American Employee Resource Group. This year, she was recognized as one of the “Top 100 Women Leaders of New Jersey” by the organization Women We Admire and became a newly appointed co-chair of the Black Voices Affinity Group at the Public Relations Society of America. In 2021, Browne received Crain’s New York Business Notable in Marketing and PR Award.
She describes her 20,000 follower-strong Instagram page, “The Taste of S,” as an inspirational destination away from stress and the passive fear we experience as a society.
Browne says she is empowered when using beauty brands by women of color like Pat McGrath, Huda Kattan and Rihanna, buoyed by memories of her mother, a Liberian immigrant.
“I think there’s a certain childhood nostalgia of … seeing my mom look and feel her best with products and tools that empower her to do that. … There was something about when she had that bold red Fashion Fair lip on. Her hair flipped a little more and she had a new pep in her step, and I bring that to myself and my work every day.”
Browne’s parents are Wall Street executives who instilled the values of giving back, often spending weekends volunteering in their local community through toy drives, clothing drives and other initiatives. At Seton Hall, Browne gravitated toward the Division of Volunteer Efforts (D.O.V.E.) and supporting the South Orange community during her undergraduate years. She would later secure a Leadership Advisory Board role with the Girl Scouts of Greater New York, where she helps to raise funds for more than 30,000 girls served by the organization. Browne attributes her undergraduate days with D.O.V.E. and parents for instilling her passion to give back, which has now led to Browne addressing period poverty in her local community. To date, Browne has secured more than 6,000 menstrual health products to support the Flow Initiative.
Beyond her community relations, Browne is also passionate about helping marginalized groups through job recruitment and mentorship to help diversify the public relations industry. With Black representation in the industry being less than 10 percent, Browne strives to dispel misguided notions of what it means to be Black in corporate America and encourages future generations to step into her shoes.
As Browne reflects on her journey to date, she praises her father, a Belgian immigrant, who had an intuition Seton Hall would change her life — and it did.
Today, Browne has learned to embrace transformative experiences of all kinds by turning any fear she might have into faith.
“Now in my career, when I’m counseling a Fortune 500 client or leading global business pitches, that initial fear that would come — doesn’t surface anymore. I trust that the moment that I’m in is where I’m supposed to be and what will happen next is what I’m supposed to be doing.”
Jessica Strom
