Dr. Brown is professor of epidemiology and biostatistics and director of research at the College of Public Health, University of South Florida. He is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Biostatistics and the Department of Mental Hygiene at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. He has been a senior scientist with the Hopkins Prevention Research Center (PRC) since its initial funding in 1985. In 1987 he received NIMH support for the first methodology grant (MH40859 Designs and Analyses for Mental Health Preventive Trials) that developed in partnership with NIMH-funded prevention research centers. This grant has been refunded twice and is now jointly supported by NIMH and NIDA. Its work is fully integrated into all the existing PRCs, but is especially well linked to the Hopkins PRC. Through this grant, Dr. Brown serves as the director of the Prevention Science and Methodology Group (PSMG), a network of prevention methodologists and scientists who develop new designs and analyses for prevention. PSMG supports work at USF and at UCLA (under Bengt Muthen’s direction), as well as work at Johns Hopkins, the University of Melbourne, Michigan State, and the Oregon Social Learning Center. Over the past 5 years, PSMG has hosted 13 unique workshops and national meetings on prevention science and methodology. Dr. Brown has also received funding as an NIMH Independent Scientist (K02) to enhance this methodologic development in prevention, and he has been a co-director of the Hopkins Prevention Training Grant since its inception. Dr. Brown has served as mentor to nearly all the Hopkins prevention trainees, and he continues to collaborate on the development of many preventive trial designs both within and outside the United States.

Dr. Brown has published extensively on the design and analysis of randomized preventive trials. These involve the design of preventive trials, modeling techniques for missing data problems, and development of new methodology for growth curves. Much of this work involves early school and classroom-based interventions that focus on aggression, depression, attention, and concentration, all shown to be early predictors of adolescent problem behavior including conduct disorder, delinquency, drug abuse, and depression.

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