People

Pearson Brown is a Ph.D. graduate of the McBee Institute of Higher Education and the Director of System Strategy and Operations at the University of South Carolina. In this role, he works to advance the USC System’s eight institutions and their 58,000+ students through leading cross-institution coordination efforts, supporting system-wide initiatives, and producing system-level reports.

Before joining the USC System, Brown worked as a Research Associate for the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, where he conducted research and policy analysis that examined the ranging facets of students’ higher education journeys. He has presented his work at the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) and at the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) Forum. Brown has participated in professional development opportunities such as the Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO) Next Generation Champions, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Data Institute, and was a state policy intern with the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO).

Brown’s dissertation looked at how state-level tax streams relate to various funding outcomes for public higher education. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Professional Selling from Baylor University and a Master of Education in College Student Affairs Administration from the University of Georgia.