Christy Brown, president of Alverno College in Milwaukee, is the type of leader that the college needs as higher education navigates myriad challenges, according to Kathy Hudson, chair of Alverno’s board of trustees.
Brown has more than two decades of leadership experience in nonprofit and higher education organizations. She has served as vice president and corporate counsel at Lutheran Social Services, executive vice president and general counsel at Milwaukee Area Technical College, vice chancellor of finance and administrative affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and as CEO of the Girl Scouts of Wisconsin Southeast.
When Brown joined Alverno College in July 2023 as its ninth president, she was faced with multi-year trends of declining enrollment and significant budget deficits. Alverno board member and alumna Cecelia Gore called Brown, “the bold leader we needed to make the painful decisions critical to assuring Alverno’s financial sustainability.”
Brown recommended that the Alverno board declare financial exigency in June 2024. The declaration paved the way for aligning resources and led to the Higher Learning Commission’s designation of the college as in “financial distress.” In December 2024, HLC removed the “financial distress” designation from Alverno.
