About

Brienne Brown comes from a proud lineage of military service—her family has served in every major U.S. conflict since World War I. Her father, a fighter pilot, and her mother, a combat nurse, met while serving in the Vietnam War. She was born on an Air Force base in Germany, and shortly after, the family moved to Iran, where her father served as the U.S. Military Attaché to the Shah. Her mother retired as an Air Force Colonel. That legacy shaped not only Brienne’s early life, but her enduring sense of duty, resilience, and public service.

Eventually, her family settled in Austin, Texas. As a young adult, she traveled extensively, working in a fish cannery in Alaska and an art gallery in Hawaii, until she went back to school and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, Communication and Media Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, along with a minor in Spanish.

She spent the majority of her journalism career at Stratfor.com, one of the first online geopolitical publications. There, she spent 10 years covering underreported global conflict zones, including the Balkans, Russia, Somalia, Venezuela, and the Middle East.

Driven to make a more direct impact on public health, Brienne returned to UT Austin for graduate studies in Health Education, focusing on the built environment and chronic disease epidemiology. She went to work in Childhood Lead Poisoning for the Texas Department of Health, and moved into chronic disease caused by pesticide exposure and workplace health risks. During this time, she was elected chair of the Consortium of State-based Surveillance (COSS) which is a national workgroup of epidemiologists concerned with occupational health indicators and funded by NIOSH and the CDC.

Brienne and her husband, a professor of Cold War and Modern European history at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, moved to Whitewater when their children were small. While raising their daughter and son, Brienne became deeply involved in her community. She taught community yoga classes, and later joined UW–Whitewater as an adjunct instructor in Health Education.

Brienne served as Program Director for the Whitewater Community Foundation and has been a dedicated member of the Whitewater Library Board for more than 12 years. She co-chaired a successful $3 million campaign to renovate and expand the library, helped launch the Whitewater City Market (now in its 10th year), and started a local makerspace. She also serves on the board of the Whitewater Grocery Cooperative, a project focused on restoring access to fresh food in the community’s food desert. She served three terms on the Whitewater Common Council and on numerous city committees. 

Brienne continues to lead with vision, empathy, and a deep commitment to making Assembly District 43 a vibrant, inclusive place to live. She still lives in Whitewater with her family, rescue dog Bodhi, and rescue cat Honey. Her favorite hobbies are hiking the Ice Age Trail, cooking with seasonal and locally-grown produce, and reading science fiction novels.