Danielle Brown, Ph.D. is the 1855 Community and Urban Journalism Professor and an associate professor in the School of Journalism at Michigan State University. She is also the founding director of the LIFT Project -- an engaged research effort aimed at identifying networks of trusted messengers in underrepresented communities in the Midwest to 1) understand their effects on civic and democratic life; 2) create, network, and allocate resources needed to inform communities better; and 3) build new opportunities for sustainable reparative narrative change.

Dr. Brown's interdisciplinary and community-engaged scholarship utilizes the cross-sections of journalism, political science, and sociology. She specializes in analyses of media representations and narrative change, social movements and activism, and identity and political psychology. Dr. Brown has published dozens of articles in peer-reviewed journals and media outlets. She has received multiple awards and recognition for her research and service record as an early-career scholar and pioneering public engagement work. Dr. Brown is an associate editor for the International Journal of Press/Politics. She previously served on the faculty at the University of Minnesota and Indiana University. Prior to joining the academy, she was a photojournalist, writer, and later a non-profit public relations professional.