Born and raised where the chile is the best, Katie Brown grew up in Pueblo where it made her the person she is. When she was in the first grade, she told her Mom that she wanted to be a teacher so that she could grade papers. While teaching Italian to second graders at Sunset Park Elementary (the school she would eventually return to as a staff member), she again told her Mom that she wanted to teach. Her Mom was a teacher, her Grandmother taught school in rural Nebraska before her. It felt like the family tradition and a natural fit. When she said, “Please don’t,” Katie listened.
After graduating college, she worked a variety of jobs including labor and community organizer, Katie jumped at the chance to work at Freed Middle School in Pueblo, right next door to where she grew up. She found the work profoundly meaningful but it paid just $19,000 a year. She knew she had to speak up.
And this is how she became involved with the union. She knew the only way to improve her and her co-workers’ situations would be to come together and organize to fight for a contract. “In the same spirit of the working people of Pueblo who came before us, after less than a year my coworkers and I did just that,” said Brown.
Katie’s precious moments outside of board and school work are with her favorite guys – husband Zach, a brilliant listener and strike chant shouter, their oldest son Elliot, an excellent dancer and first-class reader, their younger son, Samuel who always has them laughing. They also have two furry guys, Chewy and Mando, the best border collies around. Together they like to hike around the Pueblo Reservoir, ride their bikes along the Arkansas River, paddle board at Lake Beckwith, and admire the beauty and community of their hometown, Pueblo.
Katie Brown is an elementary school counselor, the president-elect of the Colorado School Counselors Association, and proud member of the Pueblo County Education Association.