Placeholder photo for Heather Brown

Heather Brown

Research Communications Coordinator

Education

  • B.A. in religion and women's studies | Lake Forest College |1996
  • MTS in religion and women's studies | Harvard Divinity School | 2001
  • Ed.D. in adult and higher education | Northern Illinois University | 2012

Academic and Professional Experience

Academic Interests
  • Science Communication
  • Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
  • Qualitative Research Methods
  • Critical Fat Studies
  • Andragogy and Pedagogy
Committees and Professional Memberships
  • Chancellor鈥檚 Standing Committee on the Status of Women, 2013-2014, University of Missouri
  • Advisory Committee to the Office of Undergraduate Research, 2013-2014, University of Missouri
  • Task Force on Preprofessional and Pregraduate School Student Outcomes, 2008-2012, Lake Forest College
Work Experience
  1. Director, Women鈥檚 Center, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN, 2023-2025
  2. Assistant Director, University Writing Center, A.T. Still University, Kirksville, MO, 2019-2023
  3. Executive Director, Women + Girls Research Alliance, University of North Carolina Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, 2014-2019
  4. Director, Grant Writing and Publications, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 2012-2014
  5. Assistant Dean of the Faculty (2009-2012), Director of Grants and Scholarships (2006-2009), Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, IL
  6. Development Officer, Corporate and Foundation Relations (2005-2006), Grant Writer (2004-2005), Women鈥檚 Educational and Industrial Union (now Economic Mobility Pathways, EMPath), Boston, MA

Research and Scholarly Work

Awards and Honors
  1. Co-Editor, Adult Literacy Education: The International Journal of Literacy, Language, and Numeracy, ProLiteracy, 2018-2025
  2. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Fellow, 2023-2024, St. Cloud State University
  3. Outstanding Employee Award, 2021, A.T. Still University, College of Graduate Health Studies
  4. Emerging Leader Award, 2018, Women鈥檚 Center Committee, National Women鈥檚 Studies Association
  5. Director, Membership and Outreach, 2017-2019, Southeastern Women's Studies Association
  6. Co-Editor, Journal of Research and Practice for Adult Literacy, Secondary, and Basic Education, Coalition on Adult Basic Education, 2015-2017
  7. Editorial Assistant, Adult Education Quarterly, Northern Illinois University/American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, 2011-2013
  8. Faculty Adviser for the Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright (student and faculty), Truman, Woodrow Wilson, Udall, Boren and Goldwater Fellowships, 2007-2012, Lake Forest College
Publications
  1. Brown, H.A. (2023). . In A.E. Farrell (Ed.), The contemporary reader of gender and fat studies (pp. 152-163). Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003140665-17
  2. Brown, H.A. (2022). Confidence: A good thing co-opted by neoliberalism. Resources for Gender and Women鈥檚 Studies: A Feminist Review, 43(1-2), 14-15.
  3. Brown, H.A. and Ellis-Ordway, N. (Eds). (2021). . Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003057000.
  4. Brown, H.A. and Ellis-Ordway, N. (2021). Introduction: Documented harm: How a misguided paradigm hurts fat people (and everybody else). Weight bias in health education: Critical perspectives for pedagogy and practice. Routledge.
  5. Brown, H.A. (2021). Preface: Fattening pedagogy. Weight bias in health education: Critical perspectives for pedagogy and practice. Routledge.
  6. Brown, H.A. (2021). What counts as good or bad writing about weight: Reflections of a writing coach. Weight bias in health education: Critical perspectives for pedagogy and practice. Routledge.
  7. Brown, H.A. and Ellis-Ordway, N. (2021). Conclusion: A call to fatten pedagogy because lives depend on it. Weight bias in health education: Critical perspectives for pedagogy and practice. Routledge.
  8. Brown, H.A. (2020). A bad critique? Resources for Gender and Women鈥檚 Studies: A Feminist Review, 41(3-4), 1-2.
  9. Brown, H. and Herndon, A. (2020). No bad fatties allowed?: Negotiating the meaning and power of the mutable body. In M. Friedman, C. Rice and J. Rinaldi (Eds.) Thickening fat: Fat bodies, intersectionality and social justice (pp. 139-149). Routledge.
  10. Brown, H. (2019). We are women, made into Cassandra. Resources for Gender and Women鈥檚 Studies: A Feminist Review, 40(2-3), 3-4.
  11. Palmer, B. and Brown, H. (2018). Shedding light on the reality of smart girls. Sex Roles, 78, 713-714. DOI: 10.1007/s11199-017-0843-y.
  12. Brown, H. (2017). 鈥淭here鈥檚 always stomach on the table and then I gotta write!鈥: Physical space and learning in fat college women. Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society, 7(1), 11-20. DOI: 10.1080/21604851.2017.1360665.
  13. Brown, H. (2017). Case studies in community-based qualitative research: Women + Girls Research Alliance, University of North Carolina 鈥 Charlotte. In L. R. Johnson (Ed.), Community-based qualitative research: Approaches for education and the social sciences (pp.165-167), SAGE.
  14. Brown, H. (2016). Fat studies in the field of higher education: Developing a theoretical framework and its implications for research and practice. In E. Carter and C. Russell (Eds.), The fat pedagogy reader: Challenging weight-based oppression in education (pp. 201-210). Peter Lang. (Winner: 2017 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award, American Educational Research Association; 2016 American Educational Studies Association Critics' Choice Award).
  15. Brown, H. (2014). Never delivering the whole package: Family influence on fat daughters鈥 college experiences. In R. Chastain (Ed.), The politics of size: Perspectives from the fat-acceptance movement (Vol. 2) (pp. 189-202). Praeger.

Conference Presentations

  1. Brown, H.A. (2022). Words may kill us: Practices of care and equity in writing about weight. Paper presented at the UW System Women鈥檚 and Gender Studies Consortium Conference, Madison, WI.
  2. Brown, H. (2019). Is fat studies dead in the United States? Paper presented at the National Conference of the American/Popular Culture Association, Washington, D.C.
  3. Brown, H. (2018). Fat studies scholars as targets in the Campus Reform era. Paper presented at the National Women鈥檚 Studies Association National Conference, Atlanta, GA.
  4. Brown. H. (2018). Surviving (and thriving) as a public, feminist researcher in the Campus Reform era. Paper presented at the Southeast Women鈥檚 Studies Association Annual Conference, Clemson, SC.
  5. Brown, H. and Palmer, B. (2017). Using feminist-based research praxis to support community-driven research and collaboration. Paper presented at the Southeast Women鈥檚 Studies Association Annual Conference, Atlanta, GA.
  6. Finley, K., Brown, H. and Negron-Rios, J. (2016). The politics of girl-serving organizations: Intersections of fixing 鈥渢he system鈥 while uplifting 鈥渢he self.鈥 Roundtable discussion held at the Southeastern Women鈥檚 Studies Association Annual Conference, Rock Hill, SC.
  7. Brown, H. (2015). 鈥淭here鈥檚 always stomach on the table and then I gotta write!鈥: Physical space, body consciousness and learning in fat college women learners. Paper presented at the National Women鈥檚 Studies Association Annual Conference, Milwaukee, WI.
  8. Brown, H. (2012). Freire in the fat-o-sphere: Conscientization and fat acceptance blogs. Paper presented at the National Conference of the American/Popular Culture Association, Boston, MA.
  9. Brown, H. (2012). The student鈥檚 body: Pedagogical implications of weight in classroom space. Paper presented at the American Association of University Professors Annual Conference on the State of Higher Education, Washington, D.C.
  10. Brown, H. (2011). The politics of placement: Where do critical fat studies belong and who decides? Paper presented at the National Women鈥檚 Studies Association Annual Conference, Atlanta, GA.
  11. Brown, H. (2011). Using storytelling pedagogies to combat weight bias in adult learners. Paper presented at the National Conference of the American/Popular Culture Association, San Antonio, TX.
  12. Brown, H. (2011). Wielding the scarlet F: Auto-ethnography and the war on weight bias. Paper presented at the 60th Annual International Conference of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, Indianapolis, IN.
  13. Koppelman, S., Bemis, V., Brown, H. and Sweet, L. (2011). How do we start talking and teaching about fat studies in the academic world? Roundtable discussion held at the National Conference of the American/Popular Culture Association, San Antonio, TX.
  14. Brown, H. (2010). Can fit through the classroom door. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Midwest American/Popular Culture Association, St. Paul, MN.
  15. Brown, H. (2010). Losing pedagogies: Using weight loss competitions to educate workers about health and wellness. Roundtable presentation at the 59th Annual International Conference of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, Clearwater, FL.
  16. Brown, H. (2010). Won鈥檛 someone think of the children? Politicized frameworks in research on fat children鈥檚 academic achievement. Paper presented at the National Conference of the American/Popular Culture Association, St. Louis, MO.
Mailing Address:
Avera Health & Science 165
Allied & Population Health-Box 2202C
University Station
Brookings, SD 57007
Office Location:
Avera Health and Science Center
Room 165