Biography

David W. Brown has helped guide the strategic direction for nonprofit and other mission-focused organizations throughout his more than 30–year career. At Temple, he is an assistant professor of instruction in Klein College and serves as faculty advisor of the student chapter of the Black Public Relations Society. Before joining Temple, he served as executive director of the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children—a nonprofit focused on child literacy by opening and operating previously closed public elementary school libraries. He is also founder of the Marketing Collaborative, a nonprofit that provides strategic marketing services to other Philadelphia nonprofits, and has run or owned five advertising and public relations agencies over the course of his career.

A graduate of Duquesne University—where he majored in Journalism—Brown is also a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now Palmer Theological Seminary), where he earned a master’s degree in Theology with a focus on Public Policy.

Brown is a past Pennsylvania Communication Association Speaker of the Year and was inducted into the Public Relations Hall of Fame by the Philadelphia Public Relations Association (PRSA), the oldest independent public relations organization in the country. He is the only living practitioner of Color in the Hall. Brown is also the 2016 recipient of the Public Relations Society of America’s David Ferguson Award for Outstanding Contributions Education and is the first African American to be honored as such. Additionally, he received the 2016 Ofield Dukes Educator Award, conferred by the National Black Public Relations Society. That award recognizes the best African Americans in the public relations industry who are making positive contributions to the community and was named after the legendary African American practitioner who worked with Stevie Wonder to make Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a national holiday. Professor Brown is the first Philadelphia practitioner to be selected for the award.

Brown also has the distinction of being the only person to have served as both president of PRSA’s Philadelphia chapter and the Philadelphia Advertising Club. He was also named a 40 Under 40 leader and one of the region’s top minority business leaders by Philadelphia Business Journal.

In addition, Brown is a frequent columnist for Philadelphia Business Journal, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Tribune ​​and served as general manager of 900 AM WURD, Pennsylvania’s only black-owned talk radio station. He was named a “Champion of Change” by the Obama administration for his work in faith, private and public communities.

In addition to Temple, he has taught or served as a guest lecturer at Arcadia University, Duquesne University, La Salle University, Lincoln University, Philadelphia University, Rowan University, Salisbury University and University of the Arts.

Brown serves part-time as a member of a ministry staff working in urban communities, and he is the author of Freedom Drawn from Within, which examines the historic role that African Americans have played in the formation of the modern United Methodist church.