Nancy J. Brown

Brown was born to United States Air Force general Donald D. Brown, which resulted in the family moving around the country. She attended the Cathedral School in Agana, Guam and the Bellarmine Preparatory School in Washington before enrolling at Yale University and Harvard Medical School.[1] She graduated from Yale in 1981 and earned her medical degree at Harvard before completing her residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in clinical pharmacology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.[2] In her first year of medical school, Brown married Lieutenant Andrew L. May of the United States Marine Corps.[1]

Entrance to the Vanderbilt School of Medicine, where Brown worked from 1992 until 2020

Upon completing her medical and clinical pharmacology training, Brown accepted the Hugh J. Morgan Chief Resident position at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1992.[2] As a member of the faculty, she co-founded Vanderbilt's MSCI (Master of Science in Clinical Investigation) program with Thomas A. Hazinski using funding from the National Institutes of Health.[3] Her research at the school focused on using drugs to treat hypertension in the Renin–angiotensin system in an effort to lower blood pressure and reduce heart attacks. By 2001, her research team "made important contributions to the understanding of how ACE inhibitors work to lower blood pressure and reduce death," resulting in the awarding of the 2001 Young Scholar Award from the American Society of Hypertension.[4] The following year, Brown's received the American Federation for Medical Research Outstanding Investigator Award for her study into the effects bradykinin had on ACE inhibitors in human subjects.[5]

During the 2004–05 academic year, Brown was appointed the inaugural Robert H. Williams Professor of Medicine.[6] She was eventually promoted to associate dean for Clinical and Translational Scientist Development and helped expand the American program to Japan's Tokai University in the summer of 2006.[7] The following year, Brown and colleague Kevin Johnson were selected to sit on the Advisory Council of the National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a four year term.[8]

As a result of her research, Brown was named chief of Clinical Pharmacology in 2009[9] and began researching "the mechanisms through which drugs that interrupt the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone and kallikrein-kinin systems affect risk of heart disease and death in patients with hypertension and diabetes." She would subsequently receive the American Heart Association's Harriet Dustan Award in recognition for her "outstanding contributions in the field of hypertension."[10] Brown also served on various academic boards including the National Institutes of Health, the American Society of Hypertension, the American Heart Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges, and was an associate editor for the journal Hypertension.[9] On November 1, 2010, Brown was appointed the Hugh J. Morgan Professor and Vanderbilt's first female Chair of their Department of Medicine. In this role, she led a research team studying vascular biology in humans, focusing on blood pressure regulating systems, clotting and inflammation which could result in a stroke or heart attack.[11]

During her tenure at Vanderbilt, Brown was recognized by numerous medical organizations for her work in internal medicine. In 2003, she was elected a Member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and later to the Association of American Physicians.[12] In 2012, Brown was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for her "distinguished contributions to the study of vascular biology in humans and for national leadership in scientist development."[13] On October 21, 2014, Brown and colleague James E. Crowe Jr. were among 70 new members elected to the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine).[14]

On February 1, 2020, Brown left Vanderbilt to become the first female dean of the Yale University School of Medicine.[15]

Brown and her husband, who became the chief financial officer at Nashville Bank & Trust, have three sons together.[11]