Ms. Brown is the Director of Maryland Small Business Programs and State Director of the Maryland Small Business Development Center Network (SBDC). As the Director, she oversees multiple federal programs hosted at the University of Maryland, including APEX Accelerators, Mid-Atlantic Veterans Business Outreach Centers (VBOC), and the Maryland Business Opportunities Center (MBOC), a program that was developed under her leadership. In her primary role, she provides leadership to the Maryland Small Business Development Center (SBDC) which is a statewide program that is comprised of more than 22 locations. The SBDC is a partnership between the University of Maryland, College Park, and the U.S. Small Business Administration to facilitate management training and technical assistance to Maryland’s small businesses. In the last 3 years, Ms. Brown has been instrumental in raising an additional $10 million to be spent over a 5-year period.
Ms. Brown joined the Maryland SBDC in 1998 as a program coordinator. She was later promoted to the Deputy Director position, where she was responsible for overseeing the Network’s operations for 20 years. In 2023, Ms. Brown was promoted to her current position. Some of her accomplishments over the years include the development and evaluation of policies, procedures, and program initiatives for the Network. Ms. Brown led the Maryland SBDC Network to prepare the ASBDC Accreditation self-study and implement organizational improvements, which resulted in accreditation without conditions. She developed a desk reference guide for the Maryland SBDC, which codified the organization’s procedures. As the Deputy Director, Ms. Brown led the annual proposal preparation and submission for a $4+ million funding package. Ms. Brown coached a specialty consulting team through the challenges of achieving results in Baltimore City after the unrest. She negotiated annual goals and objectives with agency officials in a climate of changing priorities. Ms. Brown is active on America’s SBDC Accreditation Committee, where she and other State and Associate Directors conduct peer reviews of SBDC programs nationwide. The accreditation process, funded by the U S Small Business Administration and based on Baldrige standards of excellence, drives continuous improvement for SBDC programs nationwide.
Before joining the SBDC, Ms. Brown practiced law at Community Legal Services in Philadelphia, PA, assisting low-income individuals with issues ranging from family law to Supplemental Security appeals and bankruptcy. While in business school, she began her pursuit of entrepreneurship development through the Urban Business Assistance Corporation by providing technical assistance to small businesses in New York City. Upon earning her M.B.A, Ms. Brown worked with Syndicated Communications, a venture capital firm that targets minority-owned media communications companies, and Media Communications Group, a specialty-lending group affiliated with Signet Bank as an Investment Analyst.
Ms. Brown received her B.A. in English, cum laude, from Howard University, her J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her M.B.A. in Finance from New York University.
Lora Brown joined Prince George’s Community College as an adjunct professor in the Business and Entrepreneurship Department at Prince George’s Community College in Fall 2021.
Lora Brown participates in various civic groups in Prince George’s County and the Washington, DC, area where she currently resides. Ms. Brown is a very active member of her church, where she serves on the Trustee Board, and she is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
