Vivian Barnett Brown

Dr. Vivian Barnett Brown was born to Herman Barnett Brown and Sarah (Smolinsky) Brown and grew up in Jackson Heights, New York. Thanks to her mother, she discovered a love of reading at a very early age (3!) and remained a prodigious reader for all her life. After graduating from Queens College with a major in psychology in 1961 and despite her father offering to buy her a sports car if she stayed in New York, Vivian moved across the country. She earned a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Southern California in 1966, one of the youngest and most distinguished students in her class.

Vivian’s brilliance, dedication, remarkable energy, and ability to see and develop solutions where others only saw problems led to a long and extremely consequential career. Although she was trained as a clinical psychologist and had a part-time private therapy practice for many years, her real passion was for community psychology and for serving those too often left behind by existing systems of care. Through her work, she changed the lives of many thousands of people: people living with substance abuse, with mental health issues, with HIV and AIDS; people in or newly released from the correctional system; and people dealing with violence in their lives or with histories of trauma. Sometimes all of the above. She was fond of saying that people seeking services can, and usually do, have more than one problem and that our systems need to learn to serve the whole person. Because she understood that, she was a pioneer in the treatment of co-occurring disorders. She was also a pioneer in the treatment of women and developed some of the most innovative and successful comprehensive treatment programs for women AND their children. She was a pioneer in the development of trauma-informed services and published Through a Trauma Lens: Transforming Health and Behavioral Health Systems, a seminal book on this subject in 2018.

Vivian’s career spanned more than 50 years. After two very meaningful internships, one at Los Angeles Psychiatric Service and one at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Los Angeles, Vivian spent almost 20 years at the Didi Hersch Community Mental Health Center, one of the largest in the country, eventually becoming the Senior Deputy Director. Then, in 1986, Vivian took out a second mortgage on her house to found PROTOTYPES, Centers for Innovation in Health, Mental Health and Social Services. The mission of the organization was to meet emerging community needs through the development of innovative models of service delivery, as well as to study, refine, and disseminate those models. PROTOTYPES grew to serve include more than 20 sites in Southern California, including two residential treatment programs for women and their children. Researchers, clinicians, and government officials came from around the country and abroad to learn about PROTOTYPES and its CEO, Dr. Vivian Brown.

Vivian was a prolific author of journal articles, monographs, and other publications on a wide range of subjects. She consulted with many organizations and served on numerous Federal, State, and local advisory committees. Among her many honors, she was made a Fellow of the American Psychological Association in 1991 and was the 1992 recipient of the McNeill Award for Innovation in Community Psychology by the American Psychological Association and American Psychological Foundation.

Throughout her long career, Vivian found great joy in training and mentoring her staff and others. Many said that Vivian changed the trajectory of their professional lives and believed in them when they did not believe in themselves. And many of them, including some who were originally clients in her programs, are still building on her work. They are an important part of her legacy.

Vivian’s professional accomplishments, dazzling as they were, are only part of the story of her life. Her motto was “work hard, play hard,” and she did. In her 20s she made a bucket list and, by the time she was in her early 80s, had crossed off every item and every place on it. She loved to travel and travelled all over the world—Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. She spent a year living in Paris, serving as the Acting Dean of Students for the American College in Paris. She loved good food and very good champagne. She loved movies and the theater. She especially loved The Rocky Horror Picture Show. She loved art and wanted to see every museum in the world. She loved investing, which her father had taught her about as a child, and she was terrific at it. She loved the beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean from her house in Manhattan Beach. And she loved to dance, especially to disco music.

At age 80, Vivian once again made a bold move across the country, this time to North Carolina, to be closer to her two daughters, Katie Cooper and Chloe Zimmerman. She is survived by them, her sons-in-law Jason Derrick and Brian Zimmerman, and five grandchildren, Jackson Derrick, Sophie Hopper, Elijah Hopper, Nate Derrick, and Lila Hopper. Her partner of almost 37 years, Gloria Weissman, also survives her, as do many colleagues, friends, and admirers. Vivian had a quiet, gentle presence and a gift for giving you her full attention, but she was both a visionary and a dynamo. Her feet may have been small, but her shoes will be impossible to fill. She will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved her. And her memory will be a blessing to all of them.

If you are interested in making a gift in Vivian’s memory, more information will be available soon about a scholarship being established by the family.