Lyn Brown

Education

B.A. 1979 Ottawa University, Ottawa, KS–Psychology

Ed.D. 1989 Harvard University, Cambridge, MA–Human Development and Psychology

Areas of Expertise

• Student voice and empowerment

• Youth activism and civic engagement

• Girls social and psychological development

Personal Information

Lyn Mikel Brown, Ed.D. is a Professor of Education at Colby College. She is co-founder of three intergenerational girl-fueled social change organizations: a community nonprofit, Hardy Girls Healthy Women, a feminist blog, Powered By Girl, and SPARK Movement, an online girl-driven organization working to ignite an anti-racist gender justice movement.

Dr. Brown’s scholarship focuses on understanding the conditions that enable youth voice and dissent in the face of oppression. She is the author of seven curriculums and educational toolkits and seven books, including her most recent, co-authored with Catharine Biddle and Mark Tappan, Trauma-Responsive Schooling: Centering Student Voice and Healing.

She earned her Ed.D. at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. She was a founding member of the Harvard Project on Women’s Psychology and Girl’s Development, a member of The American Psychological Association’s Presidential Task Force on Adolescent Girls, and consultant to the Ms. Foundation for Women’s National Girls’ Initiative.

She has written opinion pieces for a number of publications, including Bitch Magazine, Education Week, Rethinking Schools, CNN Opinion, The Boston Globe, TIME Motto, and Ms. Magazine. 

Dr. Brown lives in Portland, Maine with her partner Dr. Mark Tappan, and their cat and two dogs.

For more information on Dr. Brown’s current research, visit Rural Vitality Lab. 

Current Research

Dr. Brown is currently working with Colby and University of Maine researchers and public school practitioners on A Trauma-Responsive Equitable Education, a project of the Cobscook Institute in Trescott, Maine, to better understand the factors that contribute to creating and sustaining healthy developmental ecologies for rural children and youth.

Publications

Brown, L.M., Biddle, C., & Tappan, M. (2022). Trauma-Responsive Schooling: Student Voice and Healing, Harvard Education Press.

Brown, L.M. & Flaumenhaft, J. (2019). Student-Empowered Curricular Change as Trauma Informed Practice. Phi Delta Kappan, (6), 13-19. 

Edell, D. & Brown, L.M. 2016. Bridges, Ladders, Sparks & Glue: Celebrating and Problematizing Girl-Driven Intergenerational Feminist Activism. Special 15th Anniversary Issue, Feminist Media Studies: 2018; An Intergenerational Feminist Media Studies, 2019; 16(4): 693-709.

Castro Baker, A., Brown, L.M., Ragonese, M. 2015. Confronting Barriers to Critical Discussions About Sexualization with Adolescent Girls. Social Work.