Lisa Brown

Lisa Jo Brown (born October 9, 1956) is an American politician and educator who is the current mayor of Spokane, Washington.

She previously served as the director of the Washington State Department of Commerce.

A member of the Democratic Party, Brown has served in both houses of the Washington State Legislature, including eight years as the first Democratic female majority leader of the Washington State Senate.

She has also served as the chancellor of Washington State University Spokane, a position she stepped down from in order to mount an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. House.

Born and raised in Illinois, she received her undergraduate education from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Brown spent over three decades in higher education teaching economics at Eastern Washington University and in the organizational leadership program at Gonzaga University.

Lisa Jo Brown was born October 9, 1956, in Robinson, Illinois.

She graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor's degree in economics.

She earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Outside of politics, Brown worked in higher education and public leadership positions as a professor, a university administrator and she is currently the director of the Washington State Department of Commerce.

Brown began working as an associate professor of economics at Eastern Washington University in 1981, a position she would hold until 2001.

She served briefly as the interim director of the university's Women's Center in 1983.

While on sabbatical from Eastern Washington University in 1990, Lisa traveled to Nicaragua where she participated as an election observer at a Nicaraguan election and studied and taught an economics class at Central American University in Managua.

When the conservative National Opposition Union won power in 1990, Brown expressed worry that the new leaders would walk back the partially state-run command economy, replacing it with a more conservative, market-based economy.

Brown first entered politics in 1992 when she was elected to the Washington State House of Representatives.

Brown was first elected to the state legislature in 1992.

She received 46.51% of the vote out in a field of five candidates (which included four fellow Democrats) during the September primary election.

In the November general election, she defeated Republican Chuck Potter by receiving 64.48% of the vote to Potter's 35.52%.

She was reelected in 1994, receiving 64.55% to Republican John G. Titchenal's 35.45%.

Brown was named minority floor leader at the start of her second term.

First term:

She was elected to the state senate in 1996 and elected as the first female Democratic Majority Leader of that body in 2005.

Brown also worked as a professor in organizational leadership at Gonzaga University from 2001 until 2012.

She was appointed the first female Chancellor of Washington State University, Spokane in 2013 and served in that role until 2017.

She became the Chancellor of Washington State University Spokane in 2013 after leaving the state senate.

As chancellor, Brown oversaw the creation of the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, the first medical school in the Washington State University system and the second public medical school in the state.

The school opened in 2015 and its inaugural class was seated in the fall of 2017.

In 2016, Brown accompanied former Lieutenant Governor of Washington Brad Owen to Cuba on a fact-finding trip concerning healthcare.

Upon return, Brown praised aspects of the community-based Cuban healthcare system in an interview.

In the same interview, Brown stated that aspects of the Cuban model should be used in the United States.

She returned to politics in 2018, running to represent wa's 5th congressional district against Republican incumbent Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

Brown was considered a dark horse candidate and the race received national attention, though Brown lost.

In 2019, Governor Jay Inslee appointed her director of the Washington State Department of Commerce.

She declined a run for Mayor of Spokane in 2019.

In 2023, Brown resigned from the Washington State Department of Commerce to launch a campaign for Mayor of Spokane in that year's election, which she won against the incumbent, Nadine Woodward.

Washington Governor Jay Inslee appointed Brown as director of the Department of Commerce on January 29, 2019.

Her term began on February 11.

On February 13, 2023, Brown announced she would step down as director on March 3 of the same year.

Following her resignation, she announced her campaign for Mayor of Spokane, challenging incumbent Nadine Woodward in the 2023 election.

Brown won the election.