- Pritzker Fellows
- Former Fellows
- Kate Brown
Kate Brown
Former Democratic Governor of Oregon
Fall 2023 Pritzker Fellow
Seminar Series: “Governing in Turbulence: From Housing to Drugs to Historic Social & Criminal Justice Movements”
Governor Brown has worked throughout her career to build a better Oregon for everyone. She has served as: Oregon State Representative, State Senator, Secretary of State and most recently, as Oregon’s 38th Governor.
Governor Brown created a seamless system of education from cradle to career: doubling the number of preschool slots available, fully funding career and technical education and passing the Student Success Act, a $2 billion additional biennial investment in Oregon's schools. She crafted the country's first automatic voter registration law, ensured that more than 95% of Oregonians have health care, and passed a historic transportation infrastructure package. Under her leadership, Oregon made significant strides to tackle climate change by passing the nation’s first commitment to carbon free energy.
Her executive actions during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in one of the lowest case and mortality rates in the country, while focusing recovery efforts on addressing the disproportionate impact the pandemic has had on communities of color, families with low incomes and rural communities.
Throughout her career in public service, Governor Brown has fought to make Oregon a more just and equitable place for everyone. She increased diversity throughout state government, from the makeup of the workforce to Oregonians appointed to boards and commissions. To diversify Oregon’s judicial system, the Governor vetted and appointed 112 judges to Oregon’s trial, appellate and tax courts including 56 women, 27 people of color, 2 Native Americans, eight people who openly identify as LGBTQ+, and the first African American Supreme Court justice. She also commuted the sentences of everyone on Oregon’s death row and advanced one of the country’s most progressive clemency and pardon programs.
In addition to her public service, Governor Brown has practiced family and juvenile law and taught in the Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University. Most recently, she served as a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School, Spring 2023.
She has participated in numerous leadership training programs available to elected officials, including the Toll Fellows (Council of State Government), the Rodel Fellows program and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Senior Executives in State and Local Government program
Seminars
“Governing in Turbulence: From Housing to Drugs to Historic Social & Criminal Justice Movements”
Oregon is one of the most complex states in the nation, renowned for its vibrant natural beauty, tranquil vibes and its quirky largest city, Portland. But like far more populated states, it has struggled with a housing shortage, an intransigent drug problem, political extremism and criminal justice disparities.
Former Oregon Governor Kate Brown - who unexpectedly ascended to the role with five days' notice - will establish how her state is a window into America’s greatest policy challenges. She and her guests will share both leadership opportunities and lessons gained from a housing crisis, a long overdue call for racial justice, unprecedented climate change events, a mass shooting and a historic pandemic. A long-time public servant, Brown will bring her unique experience as the nation’s first openly bisexual governor and Oregon's second woman governor.
Seminar one will be a frank conversation about my experiences in public service, examining both my “whys” and “hows.” I entered this arena to be a voice for the voiceless, starting in 1991 as a young and idealistic state legislator determined to fight for justice and equity. On my journey up, what was it like to be outed? What happened to my youthful idealism? How did I build a senate majority caucus starting with a 10-20 deficit?
How did I ascend to the office of governor with five days' notice, faced with an increasingly polarized electorate? How did politics shift over my tenure? I ended my time as governor sure that the work we did improved the lives of Oregonians across the state, yet what would I have done differently in retrospect, faced with those same challenges?
The answer is yes. However, the gap between this value and reality is stark. The pandemic placed unparalleled strains on affordable housing supplies and rental assistance and resulted in increased houselessness. Effective leadership at the state level can make a difference. What are the challenges for state and local government? What are the opportunities for public-private partnerships? How did I take this on and what work is left?
Special Guest: Andrea Bell, Executive Director of the Office of the Director for Oregon Housing & Community Services
With one or more other women leaders, a conversation about the unique challenges and advantages of running as women and governing as such. Are women Governors treated differently by the media and by voters? Is it harder to raise money as a candidate? What makes women effective in these executive positions? Do women governors have different relationships with their legislatures? Does having a strong presence of women in leadership in a particular state make a difference? How would having more women in these executive posts impact policy and political change? Let me walk you through my time in a state that was never renowned for women leaders - to say nothing of someone bisexual - and how I worked through it.
Special Guests: GovernorMichelle Lujan Grisham (New Mexico) & Governor Janet Mills (Maine)
In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd in 2020, many Americans were willing to discuss deconstructing racism. What tools does a governor have to address these issues? How do we sustain this work over time? One of the policy areas where we see the starkest racial disparities is in our criminal justice system. How do we begin to insert justice and fairness, and transform the system? What role do evidence-based practices play? Is the death penalty an effective tool (I didn’t think so and commuted death row as one of my final acts). How do we create public safety systems where everyone can truly feel safe and, as we seek transformation, how do we center voices of historically underserved communities?
Special Guest: Sterling Cunio, Outreach Director of Willamette University’s Transformative Justice Initiative, Storyteller for Church at the Park & Board of Directors Member for Oregonians United to End Slavery
The impacts of climate change are not felt equally across the United States. Communities of color, rural communities and tribal nations are disproportionately impacted by extreme weather events. How can policymakers lift the voices of those most impacted as they work to curb greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the impacts of global warming and what lessons can be learned from state and local jurisdictions in Oregon and beyond? The landscapes and ecosystems that have sustained indigenous populations since before Europeans arrived in North America are increasingly threatened. How will tribes - there are nine major ones in our state to learn from - maintain their culture and way of life with the changing climate? Most importantly, what lessons can we learn from Indigenous people who have been on the lands since time immemorial?
Special Guest: Chuck Sams, Director of the National Park Service
When Oregon voters passed Measure 110 - which eliminated criminal penalties for drug possession - the hope was that their state would become a model for compassionate reduction of drug use and its myriad associated ills. The results have been far more complicated, with Oregon more an object lesson than prototype. More than 60,000 Oregonians have been able to access culturally responsive treatment, however, communities are struggling with public drug use, crime and homelessness.
Special Guests: Tera Hurst, Executive Director at Oregon Health Justice Recovery Alliance and Julia Mines, Executive Director at Miracles Club
Over the past 20 years, the political divisions in the United States have evolved from regional conflicts to rural versus urban, impacting state and federal legislatures. This chasm created some of the most difficult challenges during my tenure; Democrats controlled both houses of the legislature and the vast majority of statewide offices, but could not move an agenda forward due to rural senate Republican walkouts over their view that their voices are not being heard at the state capitol. The pandemic exacerbated these cultural, political and economic divides, most recently exemplified by the debate over gun safety. I will discuss strategies I used during my time as Governor to bring parties together. To what extent do investments in technology and infrastructure play a role toward ameliorating this divide? Are there some public policy issues that can bring folks together? What structural changes can be made to our democracy that would reduce polarization?
Special Guest: Tim Knopp, Oregon State Senator & Minority Leader