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Dr. Brown, has been a UCSF faculty in the department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences since 1986, with joint appointments in the departments of Urology and Epidemiology & Biostatistics. She is also director of the UCSF CTSI Comprehensive Mentoring Program and director of the UCSF Women’s Health Clinical Research Center.

In 1990, Dr. Brown founded and became director of the UCSF Women's Continence Center. The UCSF Women's Continence Center (WCC) is a multidisciplinary practice that incorporates physicians from gynecology, urology, and colorectal surgery to provide expert, timely and innovative care. Dr. Brown is now director of research for the WCC.

In 1993, while maintaining her faculty appointment, Dr. Brown began a two-year fellowship in Clinical Research at UCSF. The fellowship supplied Dr. Brown with the tools needed to build a multidisciplinary group of basic and clinical investigators. This group conducts translational research on the female urethra, bladder, and pelvic floor and urinary incontinence in women. Dr. Brown is also director of the ORWH/NIDDK funded UCSF Specialized Center of Research on Lower Urinary Tract Function in Women (SCOR: 2002-2013).

Dr. Brown is an internationally recognized urogynecology clinician and leader in clinical research on lower urinary tract function in women. She has a strong federally and privately funded research program, publishes frequently in peer-reviewed journals, and serves as an advisor to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Her NIH advisory roles include participation in NIH advisory boards, study review sections and Data Safety and Monitoring Boards.

Dr. Brown’s primary research interests include: lower urinary tract function among women with diabetes identifying modifiable factors that increase risk for incontinence, development of simple diagnostic tests to enable primary care physicians to diagnose and treat incontinence, and evaluating effective new surgical and non-surgical treatments for incontinence. In the area of diabetes and lower urinary tract function, she has funding from the ORWH & NIDDK to conduct research that includes a Specialized Center of Research (SCOR) and two subcontracts on large diabetes intervention trials. Dr. Brown is also chair of the NIDDK Urologic Complications of Diabetes Working Group.

Another focus of Dr. Brown’s research is to eliminate barriers to the diagnosis and treatment of women with incontinence by providing an evidence-based paradigm that is feasible and effective in a primary care setting. Her investigative team previously developed a simple, 3-item, self-administered screening questionnaire, the 3 Incontinence Questions (3IQ). The 3 IQ is a simple, quick, and reproducible test with acceptable accuracy for classification of urgency and stress incontinence among women appropriate for evaluation and treatment in primary care settings. Currently, to evaluate the efficacy and safety of using the 3IQ to guide treatment decisions, Dr. Brown’s team recently completed a multi-center randomized controlled trial of anti-muscarinic therapy in women with urgency-predominant incontinence identified solely by the 3IQ.

Reflecting her clinical and research career, Dr. Brown’s teaching activities are focused in mentoring and clinical research training for mid-level & junior faculty, fellows, residents, and students. As director of the UCSF CTSI Comprehensive Mentoring Program, Dr. Brown leads the very successful Mentor Development Program (MDP) and initiated the Junior Faculty Mentoring Program to help ensure that all young clinical and translational investigators at UCSF receive exceptional mentoring.

For individuals, Dr. Brown’s extensive clinical and research experience has given her the skills to significantly contribute to mentees career growth. In 2002, she was awarded a NIDDK K24 Mid-Career Investigator Award and a competitive renewal (2007-2013) to continue her leadership roles in mentoring and individual mentoring (she has mentored over 35, junior faculty, fellows, residents, and medical students, almost all of whom are currently successful academic researchers in a wide variety of disciplines including but not limited to: urogynecology, breast surgery, urology, colorectal surgery, and diabetes). Thirteen mentees currently hold or have been awarded NIH or UCSF K awards. It has been especially important to Dr. Brown to mentor other surgeons, women, and ethnic minority faculty because these groups have traditionally been under-represented in clinical research. Ensuring dissemination of clinical research training, guiding developing junior clinical investigators, and leadership in campus-wide mentoring programs has been and remains central to Dr. Brown’s academic career.

Recently Dr. Brown began her role as director of the UCSF Women's Health Clinical Research Center (WHCRC Director: 2010-present; Co-Director: 2001-2010), Dr. Brown leads the 4 key activities: 1) interdisciplinary research programs; 2) junior faculty training in clinical research; 3) fellowship training in clinical research methods and 4) clinical research studies. The WHCRC provides the structure for multidisciplinary groups to share pre- and post-award services, data management, statistical support, core laboratories, and staff training. Junior investigators in the training programs share the facilities and staff of senior investigators for their projects.