Houston Pearls Foundation

Susan's topic is the Houston Pearls Foundation which is a program started by herself and two other Harris County judges.  The program is designed for girls age fourteen to eighteen years of age who are in foster care and are unlikely to be adopted before aging out of the foster care system.  The program provides mentoring for each girl, life skills, normalcy activities and on the spot therapy to prevent the breakdown of the girls current placement.

 Judge Susan Brown was appointed by Governor Abbott as the Presiding Judge of the 11th Administrative Judicial Region of Texas in March of 2018. She served as the Judge of the 185th Criminal District Court in Harris County where she presided over felony criminal cases form 1999 until her retirement in 2018. Since her election in 1999 she has presided over hundreds of jury trials. In 2013 she was elected to serve as the Administrative Judge of the Criminal Division a position she held until 2017. During that time she worked closely with the McArthur and Arnold Foundations to obtain grant funding to better the criminal justice system in Harris County. Judge Brown was also instrumental in creating the Re-integration Court for low level drug offenders and obtaining the Pre-trial risk assessment currently used by the criminal courts. Judge Brown is responsible for creating the Harris County Pearls Foundation a mentoring program for young women age fourteen to eighteen who are in permanent care of the Texas Department of Family Protective Services.  Judge Brown graduated from Texas A&M University in 1982 with a degree in Educational Curriculum and Instruction. She received her Doctor of Jurisprudence from South Texas College Law in 1985. She serves on the Board of Angela House a program for women recently released from
incarceration, Casa de Esperanza a nonprofit that provides foster care housing for children under 6 and the Houston Pearls Foundation.She also serves as a member of the state’s Children’s Commission Judge Brown is married to Justice Marc Brown they have two adult daughters.

Invited by Irene Sadkowski and Brooks Davis