Kean Faculty Member Re-elected to State Post

Kean University Lecturer Carey H. Brown has been re-elected to the New Jersey Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) Board of Trustees as State Worker Representative.

Brown, a Kean alumnus who teaches human resources management and intergovernmental relations in Kean’s School of Criminal Justice and Public Administration, was re-elected to the three-year term by a vote of 5,274 to 2,920, according to PERS.

"I am pleased to see a member of the Kean community serving in this position.”said Kean President Lamont O. Repollet, Ed.D. 

Brown said he is “humbled and honored” to be re-elected.

 “We are the fiduciaries” of the PERS pension fund, he said. “I am grateful to my fellow employees in public service to our state for entrusting me again to protect their pension.” 

Brown was first elected to the state board as a Department of Treasury employee and a member of Communications Workers of America (CWA). He has been a lecturer at Kean since 2018.

He ran for re-election on his record of vocal advocacy for public employees as a PERS trustee, and received the endorsements of the AFSCME, AFT, CWA, IFPTE and other unions. The PERS Board of Trustees includes six elected members, plus three appointed members.

KFT President James Castiglione Ph.D. called his win “a major victory for all public workers represented by the unions of the New Jersey AFL-CIO.

“Carey's steadfast opposition to attempts to privatize the PERS or otherwise destabilize it have ensured the continued integrity of the fund for all workers well into the future,” he said.

Brown, of Monroe Township, received his bachelor’s degree in marketing from Kean in 2004 and his master’s in public administration in 2007. He is currently writing his dissertation for his Ed.D. in educational leadership, from Caldwell University. He is also president of Kean’s Phi Kappa Phi honor society.

“I’m so proud to be a Kean Cougar,” he said. “I’m a living testament to what this University can do for a student.”