Lisa Brown

Lisa J. Brown, Ph.D., was appointed commerce director by Washington Governor Jay Inslee in 2019. Previously, she served as chancellor of Washington State University. Lisa served in the Washington State Legislature from 1996 to 2013 in the Senate where she was majority leader. She served in the state House of Representatives from 1993 to 1996, where she was minority whip and minority floor leader. Prior to state office, she was an associate professor of economics at Eastern Washington University and an associate professor of leadership at Gonzaga University. Lisa earned her bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Illinois and her master’s and doctoral degrees in economics from the University of Colorado in Boulder.