Holly Brown named Woman of Achievement
Bozeman BPW, March 28, 2007

Group honors Judge Brown with award

By Chronicle Staff

    The Bozeman chapter of Business and Professional Women Wednesday named Gallatin County District Judge Holly Brown its Woman of Achievement for 2007.

    “Through her position as District Court judge, (Brown) encourages other women to make positive decisions in their lives and to maintain the highest standards possible in their individual professions,” according to BPW.

    The award recognizes a woman who has promoted women’s interests in areas such as business advancement, and through means such as public service and education.

    BPW presented Brown, 49, with the award during a lunchtime banquet at the Comfort Inn in Bozeman.

    Also nominated were Darlene Siedschlaw, a management consultant; and Debra Youngberg, executive director of the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce.

    A committee of people who are not members of BPW selected Brown as the winner.

    Marie McSpadden, who works for Kennedy American Mortgage, won the group’s Young Careerist award.

    Brown is the first, and so far only, woman judge in the Gallatin District Court. She was appointed to the bench in early 2004 by then-Gov. Judy Martz, following the death of Judge Mark Guenther, who died of cancer. She was then elected in 2004 and re-elected in 2006.

    She grew up in Grand Teton National Park, where her father was a National Park Service ranger. She earned two computer science degrees at the University of Wyoming and a law degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

    Brown was an attorney in Wyoming before moving to Bozeman in 1986 and taking a job with the Bozeman firm of Kirwan and Barrett. She later went into practice on her own.

    As winner of the BPW award, Brown will represent Bozeman at a statewide convention of business and professional women in May.


 

 

                                                  

                                                                                           

Bozeman BPW is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization devoted to achieving equity for all women in the workplace through advocacy, education and information.