Brown said he believes the council should focus on its duty to govern and serve the people as openly as possible.

“I believe our local government needs to get back to the basics of governing. From my vantage point, I believe transparency in action, not simply as a buzzword, good governance and sound leadership are necessary,” he said.

Brown said he joined the Marine Corps after realizing while growing up that he would need to go to college to reach his goals.

“In having access to, and viewing the lives of friends who were not economically challenged and didn’t look like me, I knew higher education would be necessary to give me a chance at not living in poverty,” he said. “The only way I found at the time for me to attend college was to serve my country in the military.”

Brown earned a master’s degree in accounting from Liberty University, a master’s in finance from the Keller Graduate School of Management and a bachelor’s in finance and political studies from James Madison University.

He has worked in finance for Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, among other companies. He is also a member of the 2019 leadership program at the University of Virginia’s Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership.