Dr. Brown is a dual Australian and British national, and a former Australian Government official. She joined the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in 2001 and occupied a number of positions in the Department before being appointed as the Deputy Permanent Representative at the Australian Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, in January 2008. In 2008, she was appointed Special Assistant to Director General Francis Gurry at the UN World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, and then served as a Deputy Director of the Africa Branch at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.  She holds a PhD in Science and a Masters of International Law.