J. Noah Brown joined the NJCAA National Office as the Special Assistant to the President and CEO, Dr. Christopher Parker on April 11, 2025. Brown is widely recognized as an award-winning higher education policy and governance expert, author, and educator whose experience spans more than four decades in the nation's capital. Brown previously served as a presidential appointee as Senior Advisor with the U.S. Department of Education for three years, and prior to joining the Biden-Harris Administration, 16 years as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT). His inaugural book, First in the World: Community Colleges and America's Future, won the 2013 Bellwether Book Award. Brown is a former faculty member for the Doctorate in Community College Leadership Program at Ferris State University in Michigan.

Brown has served in many affiliated leadership capacities. He served previously on the Association Mutual Health Insurance Company (AMHIC) Reciprocal Association Board of Directors, as well as being a Founding Member of the College Promise Advisory Board and Chair of the Executive Committee. Brown is a past member of the Level Up Advisory Board, Single Stop USA Advisory Board,  National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship Board of Directors, and as Ex Officio on Community Colleges for International Development Board and Council for Resource Development Board.  

Brown served as a member of American Association of Community Colleges' 21st-Century Commission on the Future of Community Colleges, the Washington Higher Education Secretariat, and the Committee for Education Funding. He also served as a Secretary appointee on the Steering Committee for the United States - Denmark Partnership for Vocational Education, U.S. Department of Education, and as appointed Commissioner on the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, U.S. Department of State. Brown was named Honorary International Member by Phi Theta Kappa in April 2024.

Brown holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, and an Honorary Associate of Arts from Atlantic Cape Community College in New Jersey.

Follow @NJCAA