Biography

Dr. Clarence Brown has more than 30 years of academic and professional work experience in the fields of public administration, public policy, political science and aging (gerontology). His formal academic disciplines are political science, public policy and public administration with a PhD. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MPA from Howard University School of Business. He received his undergraduate degree in sociology, summa cum laude, from North Carolina Central University where he taught for 21 years and was the director of the undergraduate and master's program in public administration. Dr. Brown is also a nationally noted and accomplished grant writer. He has successfully competed for or has been awarded grant-funded projects in excess of $50 million from foundations, and the public, private and governmental sectors. Before his nomination by Mayor Fenty, Dr. Brown was the director of the Howard University School of Social Work’s Multidisciplinary Gerontology Center and The Family and Community Resource and Research Center (Baker’s Dozen at 1511 Fourth Street, NW). He successfully obtained funds from various sources to renovate and reopen the Baker’s Dozen building that had been boarded property in Northwest Washington, near the university’s main campus, for more than 10 years. The 3,000 square foot building was dedicated in 2001 at a cost of more than $400,000 and is now a community resource valued at more than $1.5 million and is one of several noted university achievements. In addition, he was one of the principal planners and coordinators at Howard University for the first White House Conference on Mental Health in 2001. Dr. Brown recently accepted a joint appointment at Howard University in the School of Business to become director of research and academic program development for the university-wide Institute for Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Innovation (ELI), which is funded by the Kauffman Foundation. This year he completed an exploratory research report for the National Center for Black Philanthropy, Inc., on “Black Business Philanthropy” as part of a grant-funded project under the ELI Institute. For the past five years, Dr. Brown has planned and developed training workshops for the Office on Aging Senior Service Network as the Program Director. He has been at Howard University since 1992 and was an Adjunct Professor at the University of the District of Columbia’s Institute of Gerontology for several years. Dr. Brown is a Kellogg Foundation National Fellow and a consultant to several public, private, and non-profit organizations and institutions. He is a member of several professional associations including the Board of Directors of the District of Columbia Mental Health Association, a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Washington Area Geriatric Education Consortium and president of Amidon Elementary School PTA. He has been recognized for his work with national associations such as the Association for Gerontology and Human Development in Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the National Forum for Black Public Administrators. Dr. Brown continues to be active both nationally and at a community level in a variety of associations and organizations.