CONNECT . MOTIVATE . INSPIRE .
raised by her dear mother and two sisters to cherish.
was through the shifting of all of these various times that Judge Brown came to the decision that made sense for the person she is: community advocate. Judge Brown developed a very rich pool of mentors and a strong network of supporters who guided her along the way—many of them HBCU grads as well. That led to her pursuing and obtaining a coveted position at the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office at the suggestion and support of her mentor, Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams (also an HBCU graduate, a proud Howard Bison). Judge Brown distinguished herself as an excellent prosecutor and went on to serve as a senior prosecutor in Fulton county as well as Dekalb county. It was this work, in addition to her service in several community organizations, that led to the next step on the road to the bench: a personal recommendation to apply for the soon-to-be vacated seat on the Cobb County Magistrate Court. Interestingly, then-Attorney Brown was not looking to serve on the bench at that moment in her career. However, when one of her mentors, Judge Kellie Hill, who recently was elected to the Superior Court, came to her and said, “You would be perfect for this role,” Judge Brown took the leap. “As an attorney, I felt the best way to give back to the community that I have called home for 25 years was to serve in this capacity.”
Her mother, sisters, and nieces and nephews, who she affectionately calls her "Heartbeats," and also her Clark Atlanta family. “At Clark, our motto is ‘we find a way or make one.’ [And] anybody who’s attended an HBCU knows, it’s not friends, it’s not classmates, it’s family. [I was] in an environment where making a mistake wasn’t so detrimental. I learned to do more with less, to carve a path if one isn’t already there. And I had friends, those who will celebrate you, people you can call when you need to be grounded and connected.” Judge Brown interviewed for the Magistrate Court Judge position, and was appointed to that role. Not a year later, the opportunity came for her to run for Superior Court Judge. It was a daunting task because this was the first time Judge Brown would be running for public office. Yet, it was the familiar call to serve and be of service that motivated her to put herself out there: representation for the community. “It’s important that elected officials, judges, be reflective of the communities we serve.” An expanded supportive group of HBCU alumni from across the country, family in the U.S. and the Bahamas, friends, past and present co-workers, and community leaders came forward with a resounding charge on her behalf. The voters mobilized and Judge Brown won! And in the winning, Judge Brown understood that the victory was not just hers and that she could not just rest on
“Service was important in my family. Service in my church, service in my community.In all HBCUs, service is instilled in us, [we know that] everything is bigger than us.[Matriculating through Clark] taught me that I was capable of anything because the people around me told me that I couldn’t settle for anything less than excellence.” Judge Brown’s road to the judiciary was non-traditional, as she majored in communications and worked in telecommunications for several years in Corporate America. She continued to serve in various community organizations through the years, then the shift came. One day she determined that she wanted to be an advocate for justice. The most effective way to do that was to go to law school, and after working full-time and going to school in the evenings at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School, she did just that. It was about this time after graduation, that Judge Brown had a fork in the road moment - would she continue in Corporate America or pursue her passion for community advocacy? Around that time, I met her as we served on the board of the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys, Inc. (GABWA). It was through this organization that we developed a very long and deep friendship that has seen promotions, job changes, graduations, family changes, health challenges and victories, and calls to the ministry. It
Did she feel prepared? Yes. “What prepared me for this? My family.”
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