School founder rebuilds after wildfire destroys her school

This story was published in partnership with The 19th, an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics, policy and power. Sign up for their newsletter here. The night of January 7, 2025, ushered in one horror after another for Shawn Brown. As a wildfire whipped through Altadena, California, Brown evacuated her home with her daughter and father, only to see footage of flames engulfing the charter school she founded to educate and uplift students of color. In a flash, Pasadena Rosebud Academy was gone. The next morning, Brown drove to her house, confirming with her own eyes that the blaze had leveled it as well. But she did not unravel. As the executive director of Rosebud Academy, the career educator started making plans for her students and their families, many of whom were also left homeless after the conflagration. “I knew that people were kind of looking to us to help them,” she said. A year after the Eaton Fire killed 19 people and destroyed over 9,000 structures