Marilyn Brown Appointed Interim Chair of the School of Public Policy

Posted May 7, 2020

Marilyn A. Brown has been appointed as interim chair of the School of Public Policy effective June 1, 2020, Ivan Allen College Dean John Tone announced today.

Brown will assume the role of interim chair as current chair Kaye Husbands Fealing transitions to dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts on June 1.

Beginning May 7, Brown will work closely with Husbands Fealing to ensure a smooth transition of school leadership. Brown will serve in this interim role until the start date of a new school chair. The College anticipates launching an international search for the next Public Policy school chair during academic year 2020-2021, subject to approval by the Provost.

Marilyn A. Brown is a Regents and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy (SPP) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She joined Georgia Tech in 2006 following a 22-year career at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) where she held various leadership positions and led several national climate change mitigation studies. Prior to ORNL, she was a tenured associate professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Illinois where her teaching and research focused on the diffusion of advanced energy technologies.

Brown’s teaching and research at Georgia Tech examines the design and impact of carbon reduction policies using data analytics and energy-engineering models in the context of the global transition to an advanced energy economy. She currently has leadership roles in the Climate and Energy Policy Lab (CEPL), the new SPP Masters and Certificate in Sustainable Energy and Environmental Management (SEEM), and the Drawdown Georgia project in partnership with colleagues across Georgia Tech, Emory University, the University of Georgia, and Georgia State University.

From 2010-2018, Brown served two terms as a presidential appointee to the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority. She has held various advisory positions, written six books, and is a co-Nobel Laureate for her work with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In 2020, she was elected to both the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences. She is married to Frank Southworth who is an adjunct in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. They have a daughter, Katie Southworth, who practices environmental law in Nashville, Tennessee.