LaVerne L. Brown, Ph.D.
Founder and Executive Director
LaVerne earned her Ph.D. in natural products chemistry in 1998, and post-doctoral training in medicinal chemistry in 2001. Following a brief role as senior scientist for skin and hair care in the pharmaceutical industry, LaVerne pursued a career in higher education. Throughout her career in higher education, LaVerne achieved Associate Professor status, Director of Honors Program, and recipient of a Center of Excellence Award. She is, however, most proud of the more than 30 undergraduate, graduate, post-doc, and staff scientists that she trained, supervised, or mentored; and who are now enjoying successful careers with titles that include veterinarian, regional director of a major pharmacy chain, wound care specialist, clinical pharmacist, and associate professor.
In 2012, LaVerne took a 4-year hiatus from her professional career to enjoy her most cherished role as 1st time mom. It was in this capacity that LaVerne experienced her greatest frustration with inequities in our health systems. She couldn’t shake the angst of feeling powerless and voiceless as she attempted to engage with healthcare providers about her daughter’s sensitivity to dairy products. Following these frustrations, LaVerne decided to pursue a career path that would allow her more opportunities to impact health equity and policy reform initiatives.
In 2016, LaVerne joined a prestigious cohort of fellows with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) S&T Policy Fellowship. The experience offered LaVerne knowledge of how to advocate for, or develop, new policies at the federal government level. While an AAAS S&T Policy Fellow, LaVerne led the Vitamin D Paradox in Black Americans initiative which resulted in a forum, several speaking engagements, and a 2018 peer-reviewed publication that has achieved 10K reads and 57 citations (and counting). These efforts are expected to contribute to evidence-based policies, practices, and guidelines associated with vitamin D recommendations in diverse populations.
In 2018, LaVerne accepted a position as Program Director at the National Institutes of Health. By 2019, LaVerne founded and launched a new Resilience & Health Studies Program and established and chaired the NIH Resilience Working Group. These pursuits were intended to facilitate the development of new frameworks that could offer a strengths-based approach to the understanding of health outcomes in diverse communities.
With a strong belief that communities where all people are thriving can be achieved only when risk factors are reduced (or eliminated) AND when underappreciated strengths are identified and enhanced, LaVerne brought together program staff from across the various NIH institutes who volunteered their time in support of the NIH Resilience Working Group activities. Together, LaVerne and the Resilience Working Group dismantled institutional silos to achieve interdisciplinary partnerships that led to the development (and revamping) of resilience frameworks that were applicable across various domains. This work spanned from the basic biomedical sciences to behavioral and social contexts. The new framework was featured in a special issue publication (2023) in the journal, Stress and Health, and it sparked a think-tank session and forum on measures of resilience in the biomedical sciences (2024).
In summary, LaVerne has 25+ years of experience in higher education, program management, community engagement, and across-sector partnerships. Her experiences span areas related to biomedical/health sciences, pharmaceutical sciences, food/nutritional sciences, and human performance in military populations. Through it all, LaVerne’s professional pursuits have been rooted in an aspiration to build empowered, thriving communities through education, health optimization, and policy reform. She acknowledges that these pursuits are not possible without contributions from a diverse group of individuals that are representative of different lived experiences having a range of perspectives and cultures. LaVerne is purpose-driven and faith filled.