Paul Brown is Director of the Civic Innovation Center and associate clinical professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, focused on building SPP’s programs in civic innovation and multi-sector collaborative governance. Paul brings 30 years of diverse public affairs experience to the position, including more than 15 years as an executive at one of Washington’s leading bi-partisan government relations firms. Paul led client teams that tackled public policy problems in a wide range of issue areas including the local government, telecommunications and technology, travel and tourism, and energy sectors. Previously, he worked on Capitol Hill in various political and policy positions, including eight years on the Senate Democratic Leadership staff of former Leader Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota). He also served in positions for two former governors and began his career as a research assistant at Congressional Quarterly magazine.
Paul earned his Master of Public Affairs degree from the LBJ School of Public Policy at the University of Texas, Austin, and currently serves on the Steering Committee for the School’s Washington Center. He earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree, cum laude, from Kenyon College. He and his family reside in Kensington, MD, where he volunteers on the boards of several educational and religious institutions.
- Civic engagement
American democracy is in crisis. The lack of trust in democratic institutions—including in our election system, our public schools and the news media—represent major threats.
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The Vote 16 Research Network is a community-led collaboration between the university, community leaders, young voters, and philanthropy that will pursue new knowledge about lowering the voting age together. The network will work to produce ongoing knowledge about lowering the voting age and establish a connection between scholars and communities that can expand beyond this particular policy in important and impactful ways.
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American democracy stands at a difficult crossroads as it grapples with a deeply polarized political climate, lack of trust, and historical, systemic challenges to full participation in our democratic processes. Higher education has been affected along with many other sectors, but universities are also driving solutions across disciplines from public health to public policy. Many BIG10 universities are not only important individual contributors to these efforts, they also share the responsibility to promote the public good within their respective states
Learn More about Big10 Collaboration: Democracy in 21st Century
