Brown was among CCSN founding faculty

Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2003 | 9:26 a.m.

Thomas Brown, named temporary acting president of the Community College of Southern Nevada on Monday, was one of the 10 founding faculty members of the school more than 30 years ago.

Brown has since served in a variety of roles at the community college, most recently senior adviser to the president and chief of campus administration.

Brown arrived in Southern Nevada in 1970 from Mississippi when he was 26 years old and settled in North Las Vegas. He has a bachelor's degree in social science from Alcorn State University and a master's in community college teaching from Mississippi State.

In 1976, while assistant dean for planning at the community college, Brown became a North Las Vegas city councilman, defeating Wendell Waite in a special election.

Waite, along with then-Mayor Bud Cleland and Councilman Dan Gray, were subjects of a recall movement begun earlier in 1976.

Brown ran on a reform platform, decrying the lack of planning in North Las Vegas and called for cutting council members' salaries by $4,000 a year.

Brown's rise in the community college system began in the mid-1990s.

In 1995 Brown was associate vice president of human resources. Then college President Richard Moore promoted him and two other former program directors to new positions.

In 1997 Brown filled an interim provost position at the college's Cheyenne campus in North Las Vegas for a year, while Moore began a search for a permanent provost. Provosts are the chief operating officers on the college's campuses, accountable for all student, faculty and facility support functions, much like the role of school principals.

In February 2000 Moore named him interim vice president for student services and special assistant for affirmative action at the college.