Lisa J. Brown, Ph.D Washington State Commerce Director

Lisa J. Brown, Ph.D. was appointed the Washington State Commerce director by Gov. Inslee and began serving the agency in February of 2019. Lisa is a longtime resident of Spokane and represented the Spokane area in the state House from 1993-1996 as minority whip and minority floor leader, breaking ground as a single working mother. She then went on to the state Senate where she became the first Democratic female majority leader and served until 2013. Lisa taught at Eastern Washington University and Gonzaga University. She served as chancellor of Washington State University and led the health science campus, where she helped in creating the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine. She earned her bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Illinois and her masters and doctoral degrees at the University of Colorado in Boulder. She has worked extensively on efforts to create jobs and support working families and her top two priorities, in no particular order, are an equitable and sustainable economic recovery and her baby grandson, Blaze.