Brown, Kate, 1960-

<p>After spending most of her childhood in Minnesota, Governor Kate Brown earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Conservation with a Certificate in Women’s Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She earned her law degree and Certificate in Environmental Law from the Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College in Portland.</p>

<p>Brown practiced family law in Portland until she was appointed to the Oregon House of Representatives in 1991. She served in both the State House and Senate. In 2004, she became the first woman to serve as Senate majority leader.</p>

<p>In 2008, Brown was elected as Oregon’s 24th secretary of state, serving two terms. As secretary of state, she created Business Xpress, an online portal to provide resources for starting, expanding, operating, or relocating businesses in Oregon. Brown also worked to modernize and expand voting access, including launching the country’s first automatic voter registration system.</p>

<p>Katherine Brown (born June 21, 1960) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 38th governor of Oregon since 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, she served three terms as the state representative from the 13th district of the Oregon House of Representatives from 1991 to 1997, three terms as the state senator from the 21st district of the Oregon Senate from 1997 to 2009, three terms as Majority Leader of the Oregon Senate from 2003 to 2009, as well as two terms as Oregon Secretary of State from 2009 to 2015. She assumed the governorship upon the resignation of John Kitzhaber in 2015. She was elected to serve out the remainder of his gubernatorial term in the special election in 2016 and was reelected to a full term in 2018.</p>

<p>As an openly bisexual woman, Brown has made history several times through her electoral success. In 2008, she became the first openly LGBT person elected secretary of state of a state in the United States. In 2016, she became the first openly LGBT person elected governor of a state in the United States as well as the second woman elected governor of Oregon (after Barbara Roberts).</p>