Dr. Mary Ellen Brown

Biography

Mary-Ellen Brown is an Associate Professor and the Josleen Frances Lockhart Memorial Fellow at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work, The University of Texas at Austin. Her scholarship focuses on social determinants of health, health equity, toxic stress, and trauma-related resilience, particularly in historically-excluded communities. Dr. Brown employs community-based participatory research and implementation science to evaluate interventions that address health disparities. She has developed reliable measures to assess the effectiveness of community-engaged prevention efforts aimed at promoting resilience and positive health outcomes. Dr. Brown obtained her MSW from the University of South Carolina in 2004, her MPA in 2011, and her PhD in Social Work from Louisiana State University in 2015. Her work has been recognized with several awards, including the NASW-AZ Branch II Social Worker of the Year in 2020 and the Emerging Scholar Award from the Association for Community Organization and Social Action. In addition to her role at UT Austin, Dr. Brown is the founder and director of the Center for Resilient Communities, part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, which trains Community Health Workers to implement interventions addressing toxic stress in children and families. She has also held research affiliate positions at Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University and has received funding from notable institutions, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Research Interests