Courtney A. Brown, PhD

When I was three years old, I wanted to be queen of the world. Yes, the entire world! 😂 My mother quickly informed me that wasn't a real job. So, naturally, I had to come up with another plan.

Next, I decided I wanted to be a pediatrician. While I was an undergraduate, I spent a semester interning in a neonatal unit. Well, it didn't take long for me to discover that seeing sick babies and children wasn't something my heart could handle. So, there went that plan.

Then came the debate: psychology or education? I chose psychology. The goal was to become a counselor. I attended seminary as a marriage and family therapy student, completed my practicum, and was nearly finished with my residency hours when Hurricane Katrina happened. Unfortunately, the documentation verifying my hours was lost.

And just like that, life took another turn.

Eventually, my son and I moved to Colorado. At the time, he was attending a school where he was one of only six students. When we returned to Louisiana, Ben became one of thirty students.

That transition was overwhelming to say the least.

He struggled so much that I was practically a permanent fixture in his classroom. Eventually his principal offered me a job!

I started as a substitute teacher, became a paraprofessional, and then one day, a third-grade teacher quit.

And, well, here we are—twenty years later!

What began as an unexpected opportunity became a journey that has carried me from public schools to a charter boarding school and ultimately into higher education.

I've served in classrooms, coached teachers, developed programs, and helped prepare the next generation of educators. And none of it happened the way little three-year-old Courtney imagined.

But isn't that something? I thought I was choosing a career. All along, life was preparing me for a calling.

I've learned that purpose doesn't always arrive with a perfectly mapped-out plan. Sometimes it unfolds through unexpected circumstances, interrupted dreams, closed doors, and coincidences we never saw coming.

And sometimes the very thing that looks like a detour becomes the road that leads us exactly where we're supposed to be.

So, no, I never became queen of the world. But I've had the extraordinary privilege of helping people discover the possibilities within their own.

And I wouldn't trade that for a crown. 💚