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Senator Irma Hunter Brown is serving her second term in the Arkansas State Senate representing a portion of Pulaski County.
During the 85th General Assembly, she served a second time as chairman of the Senate City, County and Local Affairs Committee. She also served on the Senate Children and Youth Committee, Senate Efficiency Committee, Senate Judiciary Committee and Joint Budget Committee. Her subcommittees included the Desegregation Litigation Oversight Committee, five Joint Budget subcommittees and two Arkansas Legislative Council subcommittees. On a national level, Senator Brown serves as Vice-Chairman of Budget for the Executive Committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures. She was recently appointed to an NCSL taskforce studying international affiliations as well as the Arts in Public School Forum which reviews the importance of arts in public schools systems nationwide. Throughout her legislative career, Senator Brown has also worked with the National Black Conference of State Legislators.
Senator Brown became the first African-American woman elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives and served from 1980 to 1998. Presently, she is the first African-American woman to serve in the history of the Arkansas Senate.
Born in Tampa, Florida, Senator Brown received an Associate's Degree from Shorter College and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor's Degree in History and Elementary Education from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. She also pursued graduate studies at Memphis State University, now the University of Memphis, D.C. Teachers College in Washington D.C., and is a fellow of the Institute of Politics in Arkansas. Senator Brown worked in the Washington D.C. and Memphis public school systems and is a past president of Shorter College in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
Senator Brown finds time to be active in numerous civic and social organizations including serving on the Board of Directors for the Museum of Discovery and as Vice Chairman of AETN Foundation, holding membership with the American Association of University Women, Links Incorporated, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, and finally serving as a trustee for Union AME Church in Little Rock. Most recently, the City of Little Rock appointed her to the 50th anniversary committee for the commemoration of the Central High School desegregation crisis.
In addition to local organizations and activities, she has traveled extensively throughout Africa, Europe, and Asia. Senator Irma Hunter Brown is married to Dr. Roosevelt Brown and has two children and three grandchildren. | 