Dr. Frances Z. Brown is a vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where her scholarship focuses on U.S foreign policy, democracy, conflict, Africa, and the Middle East. She oversees the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance program; the American Statecraft program; and Carnegie California at the vice-presidential level.    

Brown has served on the White House National Security Council (NSC) staff over the past three presidential administrations. Before re-joining Carnegie in February 2025, she served as special assistant to the president and senior director for Africa in the Biden NSC.  Previously, from 2016-17, she served as director for democracy and fragile states on NSC under the Obama and first Trump administrations NSC staff.  Prior to the NSC, Brown worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Transition Initiatives, managing political transition programs in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. 

Other experience includes roles at the Defense Department, in non-profits, and in the private sector. Previous research roles include fellowships with the Council on Foreign Relations, Columbia University, and the U.S. Institute of Peace, as well as her doctoral work at Oxford.   

She has published in the American Interest, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the International Herald Tribune, and elsewhere. She is a security fellow with the Truman National Security Project. She holds a PhD from Oxford in international relations, an MA from Johns Hopkins SAIS, and a BA from Yale.