Brown spent 30 years at her hometown newspaper, the Kentucky New Era in Hopkinsville, Ky., where she worked as a reporter, editor and the opinion editor. In 2012, she was awarded the Al Smith Award for public service through community journalism by the University of Kentucky's Insitute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues. She was also the 2013 recipient of the Scripps Howard First Amendment Center's James Madison Award for Service to the First Amendment.