Anthony G. Brown

Anthony G. Brown
Lt. Governor Brown announcing the launch of 'Maryland's Commitment to Veterans' tour, September 2008
8th Lieutenant Governor of Maryland
Incumbent
Assumed office January 17, 2007
Governor	Martin O'Malley
Preceded by	Michael Steele
Member of the Maryland House of Delegates from the 25th district
In office January 14, 1999 – January 14, 2007
Succeeded by	Aisha N. Braveboy
Personal details
Born	(1961-11-21) November 21, 1961 (age 50) Huntington, New York
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Patricia Arzuaga (1993–2009)[1] Karmen Walker Bailey (2012–present)[2]
Children	Rebecca Jonathan
Residence	Prince George's County, Maryland
Alma mater	Harvard College (A.B.) Harvard Law School (J.D.)
Profession	Public servant
Religion	Roman Catholicism[3]
Military service
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1984–present
Rank	Colonel
Unit	4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division (Active) 10th Legal Support Organization (Reserve) 353rd Civil Affairs Command (Operation Iraqi Freedom) 153rd Legal Support Organization (Reserve)
Battles/wars	Operation Iraqi Freedom
Awards	Legion of Merit Bronze Star Meritorious Service Medal

Anthony Gregory Brown (born November 21, 1961) is a Democratic Party politician from the State of Maryland; he is the eighth and current Lieutenant Governor of Maryland.^[3][4] He was elected as Lieutenant Governor in 2006 on a ticket with Governor Martin O'Malley. Both were reelected in 2010.^[5] He is the second African American elected to statewide office in Maryland. Brown previously served two terms in the Maryland House of Delegates, representing Prince George's County. A 28-year veteran of the United States Army, he is currently a Colonel in the United States Army Reserve. In 2008, Brown was the highest-ranking elected official in the nation to have served a tour of duty in Iraq.^[6]

Early life, education, military career, & legal career

Brown was born in 1961 in Huntington, New York to immigrant parents. His father Roy H. Brown, a physician, came to the United States from Kingston, Jamaica to attend Fordham University. His mother Lilly I. Brown came from Altdorf Switzerland to New York where she raised Anthony and his sister and three brothers.^[7]

He attended public school on Long Island, graduating from Huntington High School in 1979. In his senior year, Brown became the first African American ever elected president of Huntington High School. After high school, Brown spent the summer at the United States Military Academy at West Point before switching to Harvard College, where he majored in Government and resided in Quincy House.^[8] At Harvard, Brown served on the Student Advisory Committee at the Kennedy School of Government's Institute of Politics. Since Harvard did not offer ROTC at the time, in his second year, Brown enrolled in the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps program at MIT and earned a two-year scholarship.^[3] In 1984, Brown graduated with an A.B. cum laude, and as a Distinguished Military Graduate.

Military career

Upon graduation, he received a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army.^{[citation needed]} He graduated first in his flight class at Fort Rucker, Alabama. During his time in active duty, Brown served as a helicopter pilot with the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division in Europe. During that period of active duty, Brown held positions as platoon leader for a target acquisition, reconnaissance and surveillance platoon, executive officer of a general support aviation company, a battalion logistics officer, and the flight operations officer for Task Force 23.^{[citation needed]}

Official military photo of Anthony Brown, April 2011

After completing his active duty service, Brown continued his military service as a Judge Advocate General (JAG) in the United States Army Reserve. His assignments included Commander of the 153rd Legal Support Organization in Norristown, Pennsylvania, where, in addition to supporting deploying service members and their families with legal services, he mobilized eighteen soldiers to Fort Hood, Texas in support of the III Corps' Operation New Dawn mission to Iraq. Prior to his tenure with the 153rd LSO, Brown was the Staff Judge Advocate for the 353rd Civil Affairs Command headquartered at Fort Wadsworth, New York. Brown began his service as a JAG with the 10th LSO in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, where he held numerous assignments, including in the areas of international law and claims law.^{[citation needed]} Currently, Brown is a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Operation Iraqi Freedom

In 2004, Brown, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, was deployed to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Brown served in Baghdad, Fallujah, Kirkuk, and Basra with the 353rd Civil Affairs Command as Senior Consultant to the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration. Brown received the Bronze Star for his distinguished service in Iraq.

Awards, ribbons, and badges

Legion of Merit

Bronze Star Medal

Meritorious Service Medal

Army Commendation Medal

Army Achievement Medal

Army Superior Unit Award

Army Reserve Components Achievement Medal

National Defense Service Medal

Global War on Terrorism Service Medal

Iraq Campaign Medal

Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal

Army Overseas Service Ribbon

Army Reserve Overseas Training Ribbon

Armed Forces Reserve Medal

Army Service Ribbon

Army Aviator Badge

Parachutist Badge

Air Assault Badge

Sources^[3]

Law school & legal career

After serving five years on active duty, Brown returned to the United States to attend Harvard Law School in the fall of 1989. He attended Harvard Law School at the same time as other notable African Americans, including future-President Barack Obama, Artur Davis and actor Hill Harper. At Harvard Law, Brown was a member of the Board of Student Advisers. Brown's third-year paper, written under the supervision of Professor Charles Ogletree, analyzed the scope of the Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable search and seizure in the military. Brown was Chair of the Membership Committee of the Black Law Students Association and a member of the Board of Student Advisers.^{[citation needed]} Brown graduated from Harvard Law, with a Juris Doctor in 1992.

After graduating from law school, Brown completed a two-year clerkship for Chief Judge Eugene Sullivan of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. In 1994, he joined the Washington, D.C. office of the international law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering (now WilmerHale). Brown practiced law with the late John Payton,^[9] a renowned civil rights attorney and former president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Stephen Sachs who was the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland from 1967 to 1970 and was the 40th Attorney General of Maryland. In 1998, Brown received Wilmer's Pro Bono Publico Award for his work in representing indigent clients. Brown joined the Prince George’s County land use and zoning law firm Gibbs & Haller in 2000, after having been elected to the Maryland General Assembly.^{[citation needed]}

Political career

Maryland House of Delegates

Brown's political career began in 1998, when he was elected to serve in the Maryland House of Delegates, representing District 25 in Prince George’s County. Brown ran on a ticket with Senator Ulysses Currie, Delegate Dereck Davis, and Delegate Melony Griffith. He served two terms in the Maryland House of Delegates and rose to several positions of leadership. During his first term, Brown served on the House Economic Matters Committee. He was appointed Vice Chair of the Judiciary Committee in 2003. In 2004, Speaker of the House Michael E. Busch appointed Brown to the position of Majority Whip, the fourth-ranking position in the House.

Lieutenant Governor

In 2006, Brown was elected Lieutenant Governor on a ticket with Martin O’Malley, the former Mayor of Baltimore.^[10] The pair were the only challenging candidates to defeat an incumbent gubernatorial ticket in the 2006 election cycle.^[11] On January 17, 2007, Brown was sworn in as Maryland's 8th lieutenant governor. Both Brown and O'Malley were reelected by a 56% to 42% margin on November 2, 2010. Brown was the first person ever elected Lieutenant Governor directly from the Maryland House of Delegates.

Governor O’Malley has tasked Brown to lead the O'Malley-Brown Administration's efforts on several policy fronts, including efforts to expand and improve health care, support economic development, help victims of domestic violence, increase access to higher education, and provide Veterans with better services and resources.

In July 2010, Brown was elected chair of the National Lieutenant Governors Association,^[12] a position he served in for a term of one year.^[13]

Health Care

As Co-Chair of the Maryland Health Care Reform Coordinating Council and Maryland’s Health Quality and Cost Council, Lt. Governor Brown leads the O’Malley-Brown Administration’s efforts to reduce costs, expand access, and improve the quality of care for all Marylanders.

He has led much of the state's efforts to implement the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including shepherding legislation through the Maryland General Assembly to create a health insurance exchange.^[14]

Brown is also leading efforts to address health disparities among racial and ethnic groups in Maryland. As co-chair of the Maryland Health Quality and Cost Council (HQCC), Lt. Governor Brown will oversee a new health disparities workgroup within the HQCC. The workgroup, which will be led by Dr. E. Albert Reece, Dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, will design strategies and initiatives to address disparities inside the health care system. Maryland’s Health Quality and Cost Council’s new health disparities workgroup will consider a wide range of policies to reduce disparities within the health care system, including possible financial and performance-based incentives such as encouraging doctors to practice in underserved communities or rewarding reductions in preventable hospitalizations among racial and ethnic communities. At the end of the year, the Lt. Governor will take the lead in combining the workgroup’s efforts with the expansion of innovative community programs and additional State-level policy changes to form a blueprint for how Maryland can address and reduce disparities throughout the State.^[15]

Economic Development

Lt. Governor Brown leads the O’Malley-Brown Administration’s economic development portfolio. He serves as Chair of numerous economic development initiatives, including the Joint Legislative and Executive Commission on Oversight of Public-Private Partnerships, the Governor’s Subcabinet on Base Realignment and Closure, and the FastTrack initiative – part of Maryland Made Easy (www.easy.maryland.gov) – to streamline the state permitting process for businesses and developers.^[16]

Public-Private Partnerships

Governor Martin O’Malley has appointed Lt. Governor Brown to serve as Chair of the Joint Legislative and Executive Commission on Oversight of Public-Private Partnerships. The fifteen member Commission was established in 2010 under House Bill 1370 to evaluate the State’s framework and oversight of public–private partnerships. Under Lt. Governor Brown’s leadership, the Commission is working to fulfill its responsibilities and increase the potential for private investment in public infrastructure projects. This includes assessing the oversight, best practices, and approval processes for public-private partnerships in other states; evaluating the definition of public-private partnership; making recommendations concerning the appropriate manner of conducting legislative monitoring and oversight of public-private partnerships; and making recommendations concerning broad policy parameters within which public-private partnerships should be negotiated. It will release a report to the Governor and General Assembly by the end of 2011.^[17]

BRAC subcabinet

Lieutenant Governor Brown has been tasked by Governor O’Malley to lead the Base Realignment and Closure Subcabinet and the implementation of Maryland’s BRAC Plan, which was released in 2007 to ensure the State would be ready for the incoming growth created by the influx of 28,000 households and 45,000 to 60,000 jobs to the State.^[18] Since 2007, the BRAC Subcabinet has met regularly with BRAC stakeholders to coordinate and sychronize the State’s efforts with public and private partners to address BRAC needs. The BRAC Plan sets forth new initiatives and priorities to address the human capital and physical infrastructure requirements to support BRAC, as well as to seize the opportunities that BRAC presents, while preserving the quality of life already enjoyed by Marylanders. Several of the larger moves include the Army’s Communications–Electronics Command (CECOM) to Aberdeen Proving Ground from Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey, and the Air National Guard Readiness Center at Joint Base Andrews Naval Air Facility Washington. The Defense Information Systems Agency is locating to Fort George G. Meade from northern Virginia and Walter Reed Army Medical Center is moving to the Bethesda Naval Hospital to create the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at Bethesda.

Under Brown’s leadership, Maryland has made considerable progress in its preparation for BRAC. The Association of Defense Communities recognized Brown as their 2011 Public Official of the Year for his leadership on BRAC.^[19]

Domestic Violence

Eliminating domestic violence is a personal cause for Lt. Governor Brown. In August 2008, his cousin Cathy was murdered by her estranged boyfriend.^[20] Building on his experience as a legislator and the perspective this tragedy provided him, Brown has championed reforms to fight domestic violence and provide improved support to victims.

In 2009, Lt. Governor Brown led efforts to improve domestic violence laws and take guns out of the hands of domestic abusers by allowing judges to order the abuser in a temporary protective order to surrender any firearms in his or her possession.^[21]

During the 2010 Legislative Session, Brown worked with the General Assembly to pass legislation allowing a victim of domestic abuse to terminate a residential lease with a copy of a final protective order.^[22] During the 2012 Legislative Session, Brown led the O'Malley Brown Administration's successful efforts to extend unemployment benefits to a victim of domestic violence who decides to leave employment because the abuser is a threat at the workplace. Brown believes that a victim of domestic violence should not be required to choose between financial security and physical safety.^{[citation needed]}

Brown also leads efforts to expand the availability of hospital-based Domestic Violence Screening Programs at Maryland hospitals to help identify victims of domestic violence and connect them to support services. In 2010, he helped launch Maryland’s fifth hospital-based domestic violence program at Prince George’s Hospital Center in Cheverly. In 2011, Brown helped launch a sixth hospital-based program at Meritus Medical Center in Hagerstown, Maryland. Similar programs are also in place in the Baltimore region at Anne Arundel Medical Center, Mercy Medical Center, Sinai Hospital and Northwest Hospital.^[23]

Higher education

Lt. Governor Brown leads the O’Malley-Brown Administration’s efforts to increase higher education opportunities. The administration has taken steps to make a higher education more accessible and affordable for all Marylanders, including making record investments in community colleges and working to keep an education affordable at four year public colleges and universities. In 2010, Lt. Governor launched the Skills2Compete initiative, which promotes programs and activities that lead to increasing the skill level of Marylanders though the attainment of a post-secondary credential, apprenticeship program or degree.^[24]

Veterans affairs

Brown is the nation’s highest-ranking elected official to have served a tour of military duty in Iraq.^[6]

During the 2008 session of the Maryland General Assembly, Brown led the administration’s successful efforts to pass a sweeping veterans package, including passage of the Veterans Behavioral Health Act of 2008. The legislation sets aside $2.3 million for the expansion of direct services to OIF/OEF veterans living with behavioral and mental health problem. The legislation also named Brown chair of the Maryland Veterans Behavioral Health Advisory Board.^[25][26]

Other legislation passed as part of the ‘Maryland’s Commitment to Veterans’ package includes:

• Expansion of state scholarship fund for OIF/OEF veterans and their dependents;
• Protection of State-funded business loan program for veterans and service-disable veterans;
• Creation of reintegration program for members of the Maryland National Guard returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan; and
• Expansion of State veteran service centers in rural communities.

2008 election and Obama transition

Despite being a classmate of Barack Obama, in September 2007, Brown initially endorsed Hillary Clinton for President in the 2008 election.^[27][28] He campaigned for her in several states, including South Carolina and Georgia.^[29] In June 2008, Brown subsequently endorsed Obama.

In July 2008, Brown was appointed to the Democratic National Committee’s Platform Committee and served on the Platform Drafting Committee. Brown led the efforts to strengthen the Democratic Party’s commitment to veterans and ensuring that the Chesapeake Bay be named as a “national treasure.”^[30] Brown was a ‘Party Leader/Elected Official’ delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado in late August 2008 and cast his vote for then-Senator Barack Obama, along with 98 members of the Maryland delegation.^[31]

Brown was named Co-Chair of the Obama/Biden Presidential Transition Agency Review Team for the Department of Veterans Affairs on November 14, 2008.^[32]

Lieutenant Governor Brown and Karmen Walker Brown

Personal life

Brown is the father of Rebecca and Jonathan, with former wife Patricia Arzuaga, to whom he was married from 1993 to their divorce in 2009.^[1] Rebecca graduated from Bowie High School where she finished as a Top 10 Scholar and performed in the Chamber Orchestra. Rebecca will attend the University of Maryland, College Park as a Banneker Key Scholar. Jonathan attends St. Pius X Regional School in Bowie, Maryland and plays 12U baseball with the PG SELECT BLUESOX.^{[citation needed]}

On May 16, 2011, Brown and Karmen Walker announced their engagement to marry.^[1] Brown and Walker wed on May 27, 2012.^[2]

Walker is a director of government relations with Comcast^[33] and lives in Hughesville, Maryland.^[1]

See also

	Biography portal
	United States Army portal

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Anthony Brown

• Official website of the Lt. Governor of Maryland

v t e Current statewide political officials of the State of Maryland in the United States U.S. Senators Barbara Mikulski Ben Cardin State government Martin O'Malley, Governor Anthony G. Brown, Lieutenant Governor Doug Gansler, Attorney General John P. McDonough, Secretary of State Peter Franchot, Comptroller Nancy K. Kopp, Treasurer State Senate Thomas V. Miller, Jr., President Robert J. Garagiola, Majority Leader Allan H. Kittleman, Minority Leader House of Delegates Michael E. Busch, Speaker Kumar P. Barve, Majority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell, Minority Leader Court of Appeals Robert M. Bell, Chief Judge Glenn T. Harrell, Jr. Lynne A. Battaglia Clayton Greene, Jr. Joseph F. Murphy, Jr. Sally D. Adkins Mary Ellen Barbera AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY