Background
Dr. Richard Wayne Brown was born on May 26, 1959 in San Antonio, Texas. He is the only son of J.P. and Norma Brown, both natives of San Antonio. They worked for the San Antonio school district. Dr. Brown went to high school at Highlands High School where he was a top student in Latin, science, and math as well as a violinist.
Dr. Brown met his future wife, Laura E. Sulak, MD, while doing his pathology residency at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston. She was in her third year of residency, and was the daughter of Dr. Brown’s mentor. They were married in 1988 and have one son, Matthew.
Medical Education & Practice
Dr. Brown spent one year at Tulane University where he was a Dean’s honor student. Wanting to return to Texas, he transferred Trinity University in San Antonio and graduated summa cum laude with BA degrees in chemistry and music. Dr. Brown stayed at Trinity an additional year to earn is MA degree in organ performance. He also studied choral conducting and harpsichord.
Dr. Brown received his MD degree from The University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio in 1986. He won the Carl Kline Award for the highest score in the second year pathology course and the A.O Severance Award for most promising fourth year medical student in pathology. He studied pathology under Dr. Michael Sulak and was elected into Alpha Omega Alpha.
At Dr. Sulak’s recommendation, Dr. Brown moved to Houston to do a pathology residency at St. Luke’s Epischopal Hospital. He met his future wife there, who was also the daughter of Dr. Sulak. When the program at St. Luke’s was disbanded, Dr. Brown and Laura Sulak both moved back to San Antonio to complete his pathology residency. He was chief resident at UT Health Science Center in San Antonio, and spent a year doing a fellowship in immunohistochemistry with an emphasis on breast cancer markers with Dr. D. Craig Allred. He then did a fellowship in anatomic pathology at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
After completing his fellowship in 1991, Dr. Brown joined Methodist Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine as an assistant professor. He served as the medical director of the immunohistochemistry, histopathology, and flow cytometry laboratories, and was the medical director of the School of Histotechnology and the Methodist Hospital Surgical Pathology Quality Improvement Program. He was also medical director of the pathology core immunohistochemistry laboratory at Baylor.
In 1997, Dr. Brown left the Methodist Hospital and joined Memorial Pathology Consultants at Memorial Southwest Hospital. He established the core flow cytometry laboratory and expanded the core histology and immunohistochemistry laboratories for the then five hospital system. In 2003, Dr. Brown became president of Memorial Pathology Consultants and continues to practice there. In 2009 Dr. Brown became medical director for System Laboratory Services in Memorial Hermann Healthcare System and is currently the medical director of the core laboratory for Memorial Hermann.
For his work in organized medicine, Dr. Brown has been involved in the Houston Society of Clinical Pathologists, serving as its president in 2000. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Pathology and has served in several capacities. He has inspected laboratories for the College of American Pathologists and has served on several CAP committees. He has been an ad hoc reviewer and associate editor for the Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine for several years, and is the recipient of the CAP lifetime achievement award.
Texas Society of Pathologists
Dr. Brown has chaired the Education Council and the Residents’ and Fellows’ Seminar Committee, and has served on the Board of Directors as director-at-large and as an officer. Dr. Brown served as president of the TSP in in 2002. He helped develop the Young Pathologists’ Section and has worked to expand the educational offerings at the annual meetings. In 2015 he received the George T. Caldwell, MD Award for his contributions to the field of pathology.
Notable Publication(s)
Richard is the editor of the book Histologic Preparations. Common Problems and Their Solutions for CAP Press, and is the author of five book chapters. He has published 46 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Forage, R. G., Ring, J. M., Brown, R. W., McInerney, B. V., Cobon, G. S., Gregson, R. P., ... & Findlay, J. K. (1986). Cloning and sequence analysis of cDNA species coding for the two subunits of inhibin from bovine follicular fluid. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 83(10), 3091-3095.
Allred, D. C., Clark, G. M., Elledge, R., Fuqua, S. A., Brown, R. W., Chamness, G. C., ... & McGuire, W. L. (1993). Association of p53 protein expression with tumor cell proliferation rate and clinical outcome in node-negative breast cancer. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 85(3), 200-206.
Younes, M., Brown, R. W., Stephenson, M., Gondo, M., & Cagle, P. T. (1997). Overexpression of Glut1 and Glut3 in stage I nonsmall cell lung carcinoma is associated with poor survival. Cancer, 80(6), 1046-1051.