Mary Johanna Brown

I am not your feminist.

Reframing stereotypes while advancing gender equality.

For the past twelve years, I have grown deeply into a movement I never expected I would be a part of. I have grown to understand what gender equality represents -- not just intellectually, but in a deeply personal and deeply profound way. At 51 -- as a never married single mother and an entrepreneur running two businesses for 25 years -- I live in the middle of today’s shifting gender stereotypes, and in the middle of a movement that is reinventing itself with each passing decade.

Mary Johanna Brown is Founder and President of Brown & Company Design, a strategic design firm established in 1992, and Big Brown Books, a publishing company established in 1997. As an active volunteer, Mary Jo has served on several New Hampshire nonprofit boards and is engaged in many community activities throughout the Granite State. Currently she chairs the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation, a merger born in October 2014 from the New Hampshire Women’s Initiative & the Women’s Fund of New Hampshire. Mary Jo was named to New Hampshire Magazine’s “Remarkable Women” list in 2009 and to Business New Hampshire Magazine’s “Influencer Index” in 2014. She enjoys traveling, singing, and gardening with her twelve-year-old daughter Haley.

You can find Mary Jo here:

Brown Design
NH Women's Foundation